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Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design
There's only one problem with the study, and something that conveniently gets glossed over:
IE, having a much larger market share than FireFox, is naturally going to be targeted more. Sooner or later, if and when FF ever gets to the same levels, the same targeting will occur and people will be saying the exact same things.
So there's bound to be more spyware attacks in IE than in FF...for now.
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I understand where you're coming from Adam but that's not the point. The study is simply focusing on the browser that most people are actually using, IE. At no point do they, or I with my post, advocate a safer browser. There are no conveniently glossed over elements. It's easily said but ultimately a red-herring.
More to the point,
there are no 'safe' browsers. Many like to think that Firefox is safe but that is just untrue. Firefox is just a browser, not a security system. The fact that it does not accept ActiveX in the same way as Internet Explorer doesn't make it safe. Most malicious adware doesn't use ActiveX anyway. Actually,
Opera 8.x is probably the safest browser.
The thing that pisses me off the most about Microshaft is that most of their good ideas were 'borrowed' from cleverer programmers and then they tinkered with them and messed them up. Take for instance the now defunct Java Virtual Machine v1.1.4 (Build 5.0.3810), originally licensed from Sun Microsystems but later modified by Microsoft. It is suspected that the modifications were the reason why this vulnerability was exploited by CoolWebSearch. Microsoft responded by withdrawing MSJVM without even a patch. To remove MSJVM use
this tool and to install a better version of Sun Java Virtual Machine
go here.
I like Firefox because it's compliant and versatile but it is also possible to corrupt FF extensions eg.
Greasemonkey script. Like Chris said at least Firefox is quick to respond to liabilities and when they do it's not just a patch but a new installation.
This is all sort of irrelevant!
For me, the main point about the findings is that one in every 67 web pages exploits vulnerabilities in IE. The single element that should be focused on is
who are these malicious codes aimed at, not which browser. The answer is the young. Whilst pirate sites (illegal software) get the worst score, music and games sites are close behind. Children and teenagers are the biggest consumers within all of these categories.
The bottom line is that, at home, the youngest people and those who think like them are the biggest security vulnerabilities to your computer system!
Get;
In the work place, hopefully child like surfing doesn't prevail but if it does, protect your systems with all of the above and the more advanced versions of anti-virus programs that understand exploits without actually having their signatures.
Whatever you do avoid Microsoft Internet Explorer like the plague.
One in every 67 web pages exploits vulnerabilities in IE
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