That is correct, but some software is written better than other software. IE is just about the worst (off the top of my head) software ever written when it comes to security. IT's not all that great as a browser, either, when you consider the fact that MS doesn't even bother to try to adhere to the standards put forth by the W3C.
That's why I recommend Firefox. Not only does it adhere to the accepted and publihised standards, it's written better than others, and is quite fast as well.
Actually, I happen to be testing it now.
Yes, it is faster. I don't know why, but it is.
I have a Yahoo/netscape type browser that I have to retain to stay on top of mail and storage and I use IE occassionally to keep it lubricated, so to speak.
My biggest problem in the past has been worms, but a change to AVAST AV took care of that.
I guess I am happy until another new threat emerges.
I have opera, and I have Firefox and I have MYIE and I have tried many other things but I am using mostly MYIE particularly with FreeRepublic because of a nifty little piece of software( not a normal piece of IE but available for IE 5 , however works with IE 6 ) , view partial source.
Just highlight some portion of text and pictures , rightclick and chose "view partial soft" and voila go to the awakened clipboard and copy what you want , paste into the freerepublic reply window and preview and post.
Could not do without it.
How do you replicate that nifty function in these other browsers?
There are several layers of security issues, some permanent, some that may change in the future.
1) IE is intertwined with the OS. This is a problem because it magnifies any flaw in the browser by giving access to OS stuff. MS could fix this, but lets face it, anti-trust couldn't get MS to seperate them, nothing as minor as the security of their customers will.
2) Prevalence: MS and IE are king of the hill. Anyone who is writing malware has to target the vast majority of people using it. There just aren't enough users of other systems for it to be worthwhile for them to target it, there just isn't critical mass.
3) Open/Closed source: I use mozilla/firefox, but if it really cought on and became much more popular (say somewhere around 20% market share), I would switch to something CS. The fact that it is open source means that hackers can look through the code for weakness. That is a downside for OS, but it only matters once it is common enough to be worth targeting.