Which Browser is The Most Secure? - Comments Page 2

Eddie (22 Jul 2011), 'There is no cure for stupid.' Ditto. (Good T-shirt material.)

I need to correct a couple of misconceptions in the comments - firstly, if Secunia is bringing up security holes for IE 8 then it has either not had all the security updates installed (most likely) or it is telling you there is a more recent version of the software available (that alone should not cause 8 faults), I've been using Secunia for years and I never get any issues with IE as I have Microsoft Update set to run automatically to update when necessary. Saying which, I have been running IE9 since the beta release, its a great browser, faster than IE8 and much more secure, I haven't had one single problem with it. I don't trust Firefox (which I use for Facebook because of the addons available) for shopping or anything secure as I've seen questions raised about its security in the past. The second misconception is that XP is still used by so many people, it IS for the time being still the largest number of people using it but, since Windows 7 arrived, that number has dropped from around 70% of all users to around 45% and by next year I would expect Windows 7 to have taken the lead. All I can say is if people are going to use out of date software then they have to expect problems, I'm not talking about IE8 specifically (updated) as that scored almost as well as IE9 and is still fully supported by Microsoft. The fact that IE9 cannot be used on all PCs does not make the detection rate during the tests any worse, I use the latest version of all 3 browsers on my Windows 7 PC so its a level playing field, it just means maybe people need to think about which web browser they use for doing what task - I use IE9, Chrome and Firefox for different things but IE9 is my main browser and the one I use for shopping, banking etc. Saying all this, the biggest cause of malware is the user themselves with careless web behaviour and not paying proper attention to browser or security software warnings when they appear ;o)

I use IE9 and in past all of the other IE's. I also use Firefox. There isn't any one single piece of software that does it all. I run malwarebytes, spybot and pcpitstop to keep all of my computers running smoothly. A little work to save yourselves a lot of heartache is well worth the effort in my ever to be humble opinion.

tbh its not down to which browser u use as to it blocking it. its also down to the person using it. i mean alot of ppl do only use IE cos thats all theyve known. but the real question is how many ppl seem to venture on to whats clearly a phishing or malicious site jus to satisfy their curiousity.
for example some anti virus's ask u what u want to do with something its found, thats like saying heres a loaded gun do u want to pull the trigger. common sense would dictate no but ppl would be curious as to why theyve been given a gun, is it really loaded etc. a real anti virus shouldnt give ppl a choice of blocking something the same way a browser shouldnt give a user a choice to goto a site, it should just block the malicious content an not the site itself.

This article only feeds the idea that microsoft has a hand in writing some of the malicious software.
Kinda makes sense THEIR browser gets 100% and others so poorly.
I recently gave up on microlost and went to linux (ubuntu). Fantastic os and NO viruses, it does everything xp did and it is FREE.

But if you are going to hack into a browser, you choose to hack the most common browser. Predators that choose a common prey are successful.

So much for all the people who have chuckled for years saying that Microsoft sucks. So much for the great Firefox. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I downloaded IE9 and it screwed up my computer and I had to uninstall it! IE8 works just fine, Microsoft can keep IE9 to themselves!

I have always used Internet Explorer and with the exception of IE 7, which was inordinatly slow and had a few other problems. never had a problem.
I have tried Chrome, Firefox, opera, netscape, and one or to more. just didn't like them.
I have perhaps been lucky up to now but I have not as yet had a critical malware problem. AV has bleeped occasionaly, then delt with the problem.
On the otherhand I have been asked to fix other computers that were so much of a mess that the only viable solution was to completely clean and reinitialise.
I think the simple truth is If you want to be 100% safe, never connect to any network, never connect to the internet, never put any disc in your drives.
Otherwise accept "stuff happens" but use a bit of (un)common sense, install and keep up to date AV software and firewall and make sure O.S. patches and updates are all current. and of course, back up everything that is important.
Sooner or later you will come across some malware. Most of the time sensible security will catch it. Of course you may be unlucky, some one has to be, Life's like that.
But there are those who have learned the Phrase "False Positive."

Oh, I had to laugh at some of the comments posted by so many IE dissenters, some of whom have gone into great detail in a futile attempt to try and negate NSS's published report!

Yes, most problems with malaware etc are caused by users who do not keep their chosen browsers updated regularly and/or who don't have a decent Internet Security program. And yes, users who do not know or do not bother to configure their Internet Options or browsers to delete browsing history as soon as they close their broswer will end up with an ever-growing number of cookies and other temp files on their systems. But everything else being equal, I believe the NSS report still proves that IE9 is by far the most secure browser!

Microsoft has really got its act together since the release of Windows 7 which I love and finding out that IE is now the safest browser has restored my faith in MS substantially. So keep up the good work Microsoft!

I know it is not a 100% crutch but WOT (Web Of Trust) is an excellent ad-on for any browser.

A real surprise, but then again, maybe not.

Just one of the oodles of little services that "big, bad Microsoft" does without fanfare. Cisco does a lot too. It's nice to know that some of the 'instant Billions' companies use their success to quietly do good.

Thanks NSS Labs, and thanks Bob for bringing it to our attention.

Are these the same analysts that told us that people who use IE have a lower IQ in general the other day?

I agree with the two posters above -- most viruses get in your system because people just don't pay attention to what they click and install. One day I saw a nasty IE add-on in our browser at work only to hear from a colleage that she installed it (and I quote) "because it was so insistent" So I think that there's nothing out there that can protect against that kinda attitude (well aside from getting a Mac or an iPad).

One thing about IE and it being so tightly integrated into the OS itself. I think it's a bad thing. Most hackers exploit this relationship. You.d be much better off using a web browser that runs in it's own "sandbox", like Google's Chrome.

But we should give IE props for getting most of hacker attacks by simply being the most prevalent web browser out there...

I'm not shocked that IE9 is "supposedly" good about safety . . . the problem I have with IE is that it's such a pain in the ass about all the advertising, and how it does tons more than I would commonly do . . . ok, so advertising is the way things work these days . . . BUT, if you want to work with what I work with more easily, then no, the Microsoft Internet Explorer is not better about how easily I can do that.
The defense rests.
~SongMaster~

With the addons available for Firefox I find that I have a most secure internet experience without all the bloat.

I'll lay odds that this test did not take into account the add-on programs for firefox that work well for protection against such threats. No doubt it was a stock version without any add on protections.

I do use IE9 at times. However, I must admit it is to slow. Yes, I have a few extensions. I use these extensions. But it just takes too much time to load.

didn't Winston Churchill say there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Impressive reading and I use the top 3, but i've got the impression that these statistics are slightly skewed given that FF, chrome and safari are using the google method (a search site that gets paid for advertising the sites, supplying a list of good and bad sites :)) while all of these browsers predominantly run on an operating system that has as it's tied in browser the product of the company that owns the operating system and is therefore getting the information on every site that that operating system is accessing through all the browsers used.

I've recently had to clean up far too many Windows-based machines whose owners used IE exclusively, then got scareware on their machines because IE apparently still allows drive-by downloads/installs under certain conditions.

This is alarming, and the fact that all but one of the scareware programs only allowed IE (of the browsers on the clients' machines) to run (everything else was disallowed!) seems significant.

Microsoft's efforts to increase security are laudable, but my experiences seem to contradict the conclusions of this article.