IE Blows Away Rivals in Browser Security

PC Mag ^ | 14 Dec 2010 | Tony Bradley

[for-q-clinton]

A new report from NSS Labs studies how various Web browsers perform when it comes to blocking socially-engineered attacks. The startling results show that Internet Explorer isn't just better than rival browsers like Chrome and Firefox--but leaves competitors completely in the dust. ... NSS Labs reviewed Internet Explorer 8 and 9, Firefox 3.6, Safari 5, Chrome 6, and Opera 10 to see how well each browser helps users recognize and avoid these attacks. Data was collected 24/7 for eleven days, with 39 discrete tests run every six hours. The testing included 636 URLs identified as potentially malicious. ... Meanwhile, Internet Explorer widened the gap. Internet Explorer 8 improved its results over the previous study--increasing from an 85 percent block rate to 90 percent. Internet Explorer 9, though--which wasn't available during the previous study--was nearly flawless.

The NSS Labs Results Summary explains, "Windows Internet Explorer 9 (still in beta) caught an exceptional 99 percent of the live threats, in part due to a new application reputation system, leading the non-IE pack by 80 percent. IE9's protection includes SmartScreen URL filtering, also included in IE8, and SmartScreen Application Reputation, which is new to IE9."

[for-q-clinton]

Looks like Chrome, Firefox and safari need to catch up to IE.

[for-q-clinton]

Tech ping please.

[Psycho_Bunny]

9 is a very nice browser. Although the the Firefox 4.7 build is really nice too but with far more features.

[relee]

They tested Chrome 6. The current version is Chrome 8 so maybe Chrome has caught up.

[BenKenobi]

Awesome! Can’t wait for IE9.

[TomGuy]

Firefox is becoming more of a clunker.

It has become bloated, slow, and is still a memory hog.

I recently ran a ISP speed test out of Firefox. Latency was in the 200ms range. The same test using Chrome shows the latency in the 60ms range.

I currently use Firefox 3.6.3. I tried some of the later versions, and they were so filled with crap that they would no longer run on my old XP computer.

Firefox and plug-ins have nice features, but it is becoming a monster to use.

[antiRepublicrat]

Nice to see IE competitive again.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I nominate this as funniest thread of the week.

[Dead Corpse]

I wonder how long it'll take for some hacker to blow a gaping security hole in IE's SSAR.

Kudos to MS, but the problem with being King of the Hill is all the folks aiming to bring you down hard.

[Mr Rogers]

“The testing included 636 URLs identified as potentially malicious. ... Meanwhile, Internet Explorer widened the gap. Internet Explorer 8 improved its results over the previous study—increasing from an 85 percent block rate to 90 percent. Internet Explorer 9, though—which wasn’t available during the previous study—was nearly flawless. “

Folks, I’m no techie. However, in my experience, blockers regularly block sites I want to see. I was having problems accessing FreeRepublic at times, and also a number of history and religious sites.

I’m not at all sure I want a browser that decides to block websites for me. Is that what this is about, or is there something else that I’m just missing?

FWIW, my computer has only caught a virus twice this last year, and one of those was my daughter using it and clicking on an ad to ‘help’ find viruses - so I don’t feel like I’m too threatened anyways.

[ModelBreaker]

Maybe. But Macs are hipper.

[ruiner]

I hate to break it to you, but twice in a year is a lot and having a teenager using a computer almost by definition makes it “at risk” for a virus.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

IE always has been competitive. It's just that the focus of attacks was focused on Microsoft. Sort of like the Liberal/Marxist “Wal-Mart-hate” syndrome. Microsoft-hate syndrome instead. Now that the others are easier targets and the fact that Microsoft is not as vulnerable as they have claimed, the truth finally comes out.

I have had my most damaging viruses using Firefox. Since I updated to M-7 and also IE-8, this thing is down right bullet proof. I have never before, had such a solid feeling of security since. Add to that, Microsoft's extremely good and free, virus program and firewall, (Security Essentials) you have the most secure and compatible system known to the industry.

The Apple-bots will all cringe and gnash their teeth when they hear it, but the truth is simply what it is. Linux is also pitiful and sitting way back in the “Cheap Seats” while the Microsoft faithful are enjoying their usual front row seats.

[palmer]

I recently ran a ISP speed test out of Firefox. Latency was in the 200ms range.

I had latency problems too until I watched in TCPView and noticed firefox opening all sorts of stupid http connections before it did the one I asked for. So I went into about:config and blew away all strings starting with http. Basically I told firefox to not look anything up except what I wanted.

The ones that probably made the most difference were browser.safebrowsing.* Thanks much firefox, but I think I can decide what it safe to browser better that you can...

[struggle]

I’ll stick with my Firefox and its WOT filter. Thanks.

[Astronaut]

I’ve been using IE 9 on my work machine since the beta was released. It is a very nice browser. I wish Microsoft would release a Macintosh version!

[Second Amendment First]

I have had problems recently with Firefox: took forever to load and kept crashing on me. Finally uninstalled it and reinstalled 3.6.13 and haven’t had any further problems.

I like Firefox for the plugins like noscript, ad blocker plus and taco. I love the ad blocker feature that replaces ads with your selected pictures folder so that ads on lefty sites are replaced by mine mocking obama.

[ShadowAce]

[Still Thinking]

What does taco do?

[antiRepublicrat]

IE always has been competitive.

Not a chance. IE was far behind the competition for quite a while. Microsoft ceased active development after v.6 in 2001. IE6 basically won the browser wars, by 2002 MS had almost the entire browser market, minus only a percent or so. Then MS got lazy. Why improve when you already own the market?

Then Mozilla/Firefox came along, with a superior product that was getting better by leaps and bounds every year while Microsoft let IE stagnate. Even Opera, arguably the most capable browser at times, was picking up users. By 2005 IE marketshare dropped below 90% and MS saw the writing on the wall, even the monopoly couldn't sustain such an inferior product, so they finally restarted development on IE. You have a period of around 2004-2006 where IE was, relatively, total crap.

while the Microsoft faithful

There's a problem too many people have. They're faithful. Remember, I was a Microsoft user since IIRC around 1984 and actual customer since around 1985 (bought a Microsoft-powered computer with a summer job). I started browsing with NCSA Mosaic in 1994, then switched to Netscape, then to IE when it became better, and then to Mozilla when IE started to suck. I use a Mac, but don't use Safari because I still like Firefox better, but on a netbook I prefer Chrome. Loyalty in computing is for losers.