Which Browser is The Most Secure? - Comments Page 1

Shocking results, to say the least. What about WOT and its protective rating and popups on suspicious sites. Also, what about OpenDNS? ClearCloudDNS? What levels of protection do they provide to Chrome and Firefox?

EDITOR'S NOTE: WOT (Web of Trust) has been described as a "mob of nameless vigilantes" and in my experience that sums it up pretty well. See http://www.chrisroubis.com/tag/web-of-trust-unreliable/

According to this test it would appear that IE 8/9 are best, but when you use them in the real world it does not appear to be true.

When I get calls to clean a machine of malware I always ask what browser they are using. Over 75% of the time it was IE 8 - not enough IE 9 in use to get a meaningful sense of its security.

I have no real clue how it happens, I just know it does.

In my own experience using Firefox I find it will not let me go to sites that I can get to with IE 8. I don't know the heuristics used that make this happen but it does. As a result, since I sometimes need a "bad" file from a block site I will use IE 8 to bypass the blockage.

I would also caution others that just because a file is signed - PDF is a prime example - does not mean it cannot cause malicious behavior.

Thanks Bob for this article. An important one. I find that Chrome and Opera rank up there with safeness! Haven't trusted IE for awhile, regretfully. Firefox is ok. :-) Do you think all the security updates for IE help? Also, I decided to stick with IE 8. IE 9 seemed to be missing some features that I liked.

I wonder how many false positives were detected.

For quite some time I've been using both IE8 and Firefox 4. I have found that Firefox warns and blocks far more often than IE8. To what extent these blocks are valid I don;t know. But also, my antimalware program is Norton 360. It, too, seems to an excellent job of warning me, and supplements the browsers' warning.

I wonder how IE8 & IE9 compare against Avasti and Malwarebytes 1.50..?

I wonder how many people in the real world overide the warning messages. This would probably cause the difference between the test and real life. Some people just won't be told.

At the risk of being branded an "Apple Fanboy", I'll state I made the switch to Mac and Safari back in mid 2007. I'm currently running Safari 5.0.5, use the computer between 8 and 10 hours daily, and have never had a problem with malware or viruses.

In my opinion this "study" was decidedly biased, and quite frankly I don't believe the results are valid. Use Internet Explorer if you wish, but I'm sticking with Safari and occasionally Firefox.

I gave up on IE a very long time ago and have since been using Firefox. I have NEVER had a problem with trojans/viruses since. I think it's terrific for blocking malicious websites, and wonder if the reviews on IE aren't a bit skewed. Point is, Microsoft can keep IE. I just wish I could trash it altogether and get it off my system. I wouldn't go back if they paid me.

Your findings support my results. I have been running both IE8 and Firefox on multiple machines with identical software. I also run AVG Free, Lavasoft Ad-aware Free, and Malwarebytes for security on all machines.

Invariably, when I run my weekly full scans of all security, Firefox has considerably more threat finding that IE8. About the only thing that is regularly found in IE8 is a bunch of cookies.

In light of your tests and my experience, I can only conclude that IE8 does a superior job of rejecting nasty stuff than Firefox. I only keep the Firefox/Thunderbird for my wife's benefit as she started out on Netscape and is highly resistant to using IE8 - but it makes me keep my security software updated.

Hi Bob,

An interesting article and intriguing results. I have limited experience of IE9 as I mostly run XP, but from everything I read elsewhere, certainly IE8 is apparently riddled with security holes, currently eight as reported by Secunia.com whilst Firefox and Opera are for the moment clean. I have experienced warnings about certain sites when using Firefox although I must state that the wording of the warning in the browser would appear to emanate from Comodo, so whether its my firewall that is warning me through the browser as opposed to the usual Comodo pop-up, or Firefox itself I'm not sure. What is evident is that I would seem to be well protected using a combination of Firefox, Comodo firewall, Avast Anti-Virus and Malwarebytes Anti-malware and have had no instances of problems and I am a heavy duty user.

Regarding the Application Reputation feature in IE9, Avast Anti-Virus has a feature called WebRep which allows you to view the reputation of each website you visit and even the results of the web searches you make. It works as a browser plug-in.

Isn't the tests TAINTED?? IE 9 is ONLY for Windows 7 and Vista. The other Browsers can use XP which lacks 64 bit tech. & etc. But most Users are XP.. WOT & App. Rep. slow online FB game play but worth it if not playing games.

I use the free Open DNS as a filter for fast and safe URL interface. It blocks phishing sites. I don't know how it does against everything you list.

I'll bet this comes as a surprize to all the Firefox advocates who thought it was far safer than IE. I tried Firefox more than once, but it's too much work to keep everything updated. I've tried Chrome, and it is faster, but I don't like the feel. I use IE8 on my XP and IE9 on my Vista with MSE+MalwareBytes on both. Between them and the DSL router firewall, I haven't had any malware problems.

@Dean,
It shocks the heck out of me, actually.
I have used Firefox almost exclusively since version 1.0. I have never known it to fail me.

Since this is only a Windows OS test I can't really comment, only that I am constantly having to clean up computer systems that use Internet Explorer only. I'm sure a lot of this is caused by the user themselves and not a fault of the browsers being used. Computing and online habits are what needs to be changed, not the browsers. There is no cure for stupid.

LOL.. Shocking results indeed.. :)

@Dean,
You don't like the update stuff? Just tell it to auto-update add-ons and Firefox itself!

@Eddie,
I have been working with computers for years and one day, recently, I wanted to read about the "Arizona Wildfires". I picked a site and I immediately picked up 2 trojans which Malwarebytes & ESET NOD32 caught.

Even the most innocent choices can bring heartache to people who are web searching whether it's IE8 (which I am running with XP), Firefox, Safari, etc.

To Dean: I've been using Firefox since version 0.9, and have never had to "work" at keeping it updated: that happens automatically. I'd rather use a browser that isn't interwoven with the OS from a security standpoint.