Internet Explorer more Secure than Mozilla products

News.com ^

[markedmannerf]

Mozilla Web browsers are potentially more vulnerable to attack than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a Symantec report.

But the report, released Monday, also found that hackers are still focusing their efforts on IE.

The open-source Mozilla Foundation browsers, such as the popular Firefox, have typically been seen as more secure than IE, which has suffered many security problems in the past. Mitchell Baker, president of the foundation, said earlier this year that its browsers were fundamentally more secure than IE. She also predicted that Mozilla Foundation browsers would not face as many problems as IE, even as their market share grows.

[hophead]

Why not one word here on using Netscapes browser? I use the new 8 and it seems fine. It is somehow related to or uses Fire Fox based stuff. (I am no geek so excuse the ignorance) I have not been infected in any way that I know and I've been using it fro years. I have tried FF and for some reason it screws up my display settings. (on my home computer) I use FF at work and like it.

[chilepepper]

hogwash. many of the vulnerabilities occur if you go to the wrong site. it is balderdash to say "if the exploit is out there it is already to late". if you wait a full month or two for M$ to decide to decide to issue its patch, that might be too late...

by the way folks, anyone get the feeling that the symantec report was very, very carefully orchestrated for microsoft skipping this months patch??

as for the differences between IE and FF, since I made my kids stop using IE and start using FF the spyware and virus infections on our home machine (Windows ME protected by a firewall) have gone to zero...

[jess35]

Yep. It's nice not to need to run a half a dozen programs just to protect my machine from IE weaknesses.

[Varmint Al]

BROWSER TRAFFIC.... Here is a plot showing the percent of page views for each of the three main browsers. The data are taken from the >1,800,000 page views for my www.varmintal.com site over the 17 month period. FireFox is on the rise. Internet Explorer and Netscape are losing ground. What is that saying and it could be applied to FireFox? "If you build it, they will come."

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[mdefranc]

Secunia shows these currently unpatched vulnerablities: IE 19, Firefox 3, and Opera 0.

The Symantec analysis is far less relevant to browser security.

[elmer fudd]

"The reality of the situation, however, is that Firefox has experienced 25 vulnerabilities during the first half of the year, with 18 being critical. IE, on the other hand, has experienced 13, with 8 of those being critical. So to say that IE has more problems just doesn't "add up" so to speak."

No. The reality of the situation is that Microsoft has only acknowledged 13 vulnerabilities. If you continue reading the article you'll find this: "There is one caveat: Symantec counts only those security flaws that have been confirmed by the vendor. According to security monitoring company Secunia, there are 19 security issues that Microsoft still has to deal with for Internet Explorer, while there are only three for Firefox."

Firefox might not be perfect, but Microsoft won't even admit they have a problem.

[antiRepublicrat]

Secondly, as Firefox is open source more people have access to the code base, so they are free to look for bugs.

Ah, the old, discredited "security through obscurity" argument. You're an idiot if you rely on it.

[antiRepublicrat]

but right around the time it starts to get really bad, another browser will pop up and be the darling for a while

Opera just went really free. It's a good browser (arguably better than Firefox in ways), and will probably gain more marketshare now that the free version has no more ads. Try it out.

[Anti-MSM]

Microsoft haters are a lot like Bush haters.

I'm no Microsoft hater. I use Windows XP, Windows Mobile, Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, etc and am overall pleased with those products.

All I know is that spyware and popups have been minimized (virtually eliminated) since I started using Firefox and I love using tabbed browsing in Firefox and how easy it is to customize it.

[LeeHarvey]

> Opera just went really free. It's a good browser (arguably better than Firefox in ways), and will probably gain more marketshare now that the free version has no more ads.

Totally agree! Download the new, ad free Opera 8.50 here

--
Lee Harvey,
Opera user since 1999

[LeeHarvey]

For those who'd like to read Symantec's 106 page Internet Security Threat Report Volume VIII, you can download the PDF here (after submitting the web form).

Enjoy.

[octobersky]

Good point!

[postaldave]

"Windows ME"

blahhhaaaaaaaa!!! loser!

[postaldave]

my current stats are showing a much lower MS number. i can't graph it from last year but this is a big change in numbers for me at 5united.net

MS Internet Explorer No 56895 78.1 %
Firefox No 8626 11.8 %
Safari No 3753 5.1 %
Mozilla No 1682 2.3 %
Netscape No 969 1.3 %
Unknown ? 444 0.6 %
Camino No 161 0.2 %
Opera No 122 0.1 %
WebCollage (PDA/Phone browser) No 48 0 %
Konqueror No 44 0 %
Others 46 0 %

[Arkinsaw]

Balmer says so, so it is true.

DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! (somebody get me a towel)

[Bush2000]

hogwash. many of the vulnerabilities occur if you go to the wrong site. it is balderdash to say "if the exploit is out there it is already to late". if you wait a full month or two for M$ to decide to decide to issue its patch, that might be too late...

You can apply the same logic to Microsoft, as well. To wit, their vulnerabilties aren't exploitable unless you visit a malicious site.

by the way folks, anyone get the feeling that the symantec report was very, very carefully orchestrated for microsoft skipping this months patch??

Well, I suppose if you don't have the facts on your side, you can always resort to innuendo and conspiracy theory. But those things are weak substitutes for the truth...

as for the differences between IE and FF, since I made my kids stop using IE and start using FF the spyware and virus infections on our home machine (Windows ME protected by a firewall) have gone to zero...

Tell them not to surf so much porn...

[chronic_loser]

I own a small business which contracts with several vendors whose sites have all those activeX widgets on them, so we HAVE to run IE. I have win4lin on my box, and run IE off that. For the girls who do admin and sales, two of them have XP boxes. I have told them they can surf anywhere they want (porn doesn't seem to be a problem, so I left it at "anywhere"), but they have to use Opera on everything but vendor sites. I have seen a NOTICEABLE decrease in the spyware and adware crap that has to be cleaned out of their machines.

Many anti MS people are not zealots, we just want something secure that works. What turns us INTO zealots is the anticompetitive, smug, "we own the market so go screw yourself" attitude of MS. It is a universal human reaction to see a playground bully get his nose bloodied and cheer the kid who did it to him. It is also good for MS to feel a bit of panic, although it would engender less ill will if they actually addressed problems by concentrating on FIXING the problems than by becoming FUD central. There is a reason why Steve Ballmer is the most hated man in American business, and it ain't the size of his bank account.

[ChefKeith]

Turn off the Pop-Ups.

Edit,Preferences,Privacy & Security,PopUps, check "block unrequested popups"

Problem solved, unless you use webmail that requires java script because this will block the "compose" window from coming up.

[chronic_loser]

OFF TOPIC.

Steve Ballmer and Howie Dean, Twins separated at birth?

http://www.tarmo.fi/arc/monkeydance.mpeg

http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoresun.com%2Ffeatures%2Fla-dean19-video%2C0%2C6005088.realvideo%3Fcoll%3Dbal-features-headlines