Internet Browser market is heating up like never before. With the recent reports that Internet Explorer has reduced its market share to less than two-third from about 90% a few years back, there seems to be no end in the race of supremacy. There is a race among the browsers to make them feature-rich with cool appearance to attract more and more users.
Importance of using a Safe Internet Browser
But, in this race, often people overlook the importance of using the safest web browser. Some people doesn’t know its importance, some just overlook it, and some are not aware, which Internet Browser provides them best security and safety. A few studies show that as many as 50% of all malware are caused and spread because of the web browser vulnerabilities.
There has been lot of hype around Firefox being the Safest Web Browser, and many web-savvy users follow this hype. Most of this is based upon the backing given by Google to Firefox through its referral program, where every successful installation of Firefox used to fetch $1 to the person who recommended it to the user.
But those days are gone and Google had discontinued that program last year, when it launched its own Internet Browser Google Chrome.
So, which is the safest Internet Browser
NSS Labs, a trusted adviser to the information security and compliance community, has recently conducted a scientific study to compare the safety features of all the popular internet browsers. This report is based upon empirically validated evidence gathered by NSS Labs during 12 days of 24×7 testing.
154,702 unique results were collected from 141 discrete tests conducted without interruption over 282 hours (every 2 hours for 12 days). From a collection of over 60,000 URLs, 5,149 distinct URLs were selected for inclusion in this test. Of those, 1,779 were available at the time of entry into the test and were successfully accessed by the browsers in at least one run.
The Results – The Safest Internet Browser
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (RC1) was the standout achieving a best-in-class 69% catch rate against Malware.
- Mozilla Firefox was a distant second to IE8 with a catch rate of 30%.
- Apple Safari achieved a respectable 24% catch rate
- Google Chrome’s protection exhibited an average catch rate to 16%.
- With a catch rate of 5%, Opera, provided virtually no protection against Malware.
- And the performance of IE7 was a dismal 4% catch rate.
You can see the complete report here (pdf file).
April 5th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
It’s a little bit unbelievable that the Firefox has only 30% of malware catch rate, which is twice less than IE 8 here! Maybe I should switch from FF to IE 8…
April 7th, 2009 at 3:30 am
There is a good choice of browsers for all users, but none are 100% secure.
Essentially, the best browser has to be what the end user is comfortable using and educating and assisting them to make it safer and more secure.
There is a plethora of addons that can help to achieve this, but even so, as with IE8 (RC1) catching 69% of malware that still means that 31% got through, so the battle continues.
Interesting read and stats though.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:56 am
I wonder about the validity of this test. Most malware will target IE because it has the largest (and probably least tech savvy) user base. Furthermore one should also use antivirus software rather than rely upon the browser. I think that if one uses IE one is much more likely to have problems with malware than if using other browsers.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Well, I can continue with Firefox…
Thanks for the post.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:40 am
This is a very bias survey. I’m assuming they’re using firefox with no add-ons, which is just unrealistic. If you want a browser to protect your computer from viruses use firefox and download the Ad Blocker Plus add-on. Its a continually updating database of bad sites/links/adds/pop-ups that prevents firefox from opening any links in the database. If you happen to come across a site thats not on the list and get a virus, it sends the site address to the database to block it for you and all other users next time you come across it. If you really want to see a site thats been blocked there’s an easy option to display the link anyways. Very convenient, easy to use, and incredibly safe. I browse sites all the time with horrible reputations for malware, and I’ve never even had a virus warning.