Is firefox ACTUALLY more secure than Internet Explorer 8?
Hello Mozilla forum members. I am currently a Firefox user. An NSSLabs test claims Internet Explorer 8 is the most secure web browser. Some other sources also agree. Can anyone tell me if this is true? Thanks!
Here is the link: http://nsslabs.com/test-reports/NSSLabs_Q12010_BrowserSEM_Summ_FINAL.pdf
== I was browsing through the Microsoft site and the NSSLabs site.
All Replies (5)
Depends on how much you want to trust a company that has a history of accepting vendor funding, like from M$.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/091009-nss-labs-independent-testing.html
And you need to question why they were testing Firefox 3.5.7 in January 2010 when the very stable beta 4 of Firefox 3.6 was available at that time. I was using 3.6b4 and never had a problem.
AND......~~red:they were not testing the browsers~~. What, you say?
Look at footnote 1 on page 3 of the full report ( http://nsslabs.com/test-reports/NSSLabs_Q12010_GTRBrowserSEM_FINAL.pdf ):
Note: This study does not evaluate browser security related to vulnerabilities in plug-ins or the browsers themselves.
So what was NSS Labs testing? Section 1 (pages 5-6) explains that. Reading Section 1.2, they were testing the ability of Google Safe-Browsing (in the case of Firefox) and the protection that it affords in keeping users from even getting onto malicious sites. I do not know what the other tested browsers use for comparable protection. Do you? I would not depend on Google Safe Browsing or any other such service for my full protection. Would you?
Moving on, read Section 2.1.1 carefully...."1,756 potentially malicious sites" pared down to 562 sites, but their methodology in choosing the 562 sites is not explained. What if the other 1,194 sites had been included? Would it have changed the results or conclusions reached? You should be saying "Hmmmmmmmm" at this point.
Do yourself a favor: -Read such reports carefully and in full (not just the summary) with your brain "in-gear". -Keep all of your system defenses up-to-date, firewall, AV/AS, scan regularly with multiple scanners (none is 100% correct, 100% of the time). IMPORTANT: Never run over-lapping security applications (i.e., 2 firewalls, 2 anti-virus/anti-spyware) at the same time. Two is NOT better than one in this case. -Do you know what services and processes are running on your system, why they are running and what the function of each might be? Do you actively monitor incoming and outgoing connections? Do you log connections and review them? -Don't visit questionable sites (porn, warez, less than legal music and video download sites, etc.) -Base part of your judgement on your own experience; have you experienced any security related problems with what you are using? If so, then make a change NOW!
Good luck.
Hi, this is the original poster. Thank you so much for replying. I had a feeling that I couldn't trust Internet Explorer. And don't worry, I already know about computer security, and my system is secured.
Thanks! :)
Hi TXGuy, What are your thoughts on the Secunia Half Year Report for 2010, and its data on Firefox's security?
Thanks!
JW
JW
I really like what I see on page 5, Figure 2!
Ahh, I was looking at page 14, table 3.