On Wednesday, Mozilla announced next Tuesday, June 17, as "Download Day" for Firefox 3. The company also released Firefox 3 release candidate 3 as a final step toward full release.

With Firefox 3, Mozilla is attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads within a 24-hour period. There is currently no Guinness Book record for that accomplishment.

Firefox 3 includes a new rendering engine, so pages load faster. It also uses fewer system resources, addressing a complaint in earlier versions.

On this week's Security Bites podcast, I spoke with Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's "human shield," about the security features within Firefox 3, including its antimalware protection and support for Extended Verification SSL.

(Post written by Robert Vamosi. For further information and how to download the current Firefox 3 release candidate, visit Defense in Depth).