Firefox users better protected than Internet Explorer users

INTERNET EXPLOER USERS spent much more time during 2004 with holes in their security pants, compared to securely-clad Firefox users, web consultancy, ScanIT, reckons.

The consultancy says Microsoft's IE was "unsafe" for 98 percent of 2004, while rival browser Mozilla was "unsafe" for only 15 percent of the time.

The figures come from ScanIT's free online Browser Security Checker which, the company says, 195,000 surfers used to check their systems for vulnerabilities during the year.

The reports suggest that surfers using Mozilla's Firefox browser enjoyed the shortest "exposure period", where a patch for known vulnerabilities in the browser was unavailable. By comparison, Internet Explorer users were fully protected for just one measly week in the whole twelve-month period - between 12 and 19 October 2004.

"This means fully-patched IE was known to be unsafe for an incredible 98 per cent of 2004," said ScanIT's CEO David Michaux. "And for 200 days in 2004 - that's some 54 per cent of the time - there was a worm or virus exploiting one of those un-patched vulnerabilities," he added.

There were only 56 days in 2004 where there was a publicly-known vulnerability - a remote code execution - in Mozilla's browser and no patch to fix it, ScanIT said.

Users of the Opera browser spent 65 days (17 per cent of the year) with their security pants around their virtual ankles, according to ScanIT's browser checker figures.

"Security researchers seem to be more inclined to report Firefox vulnerabilities to the Mozilla development team than IE flaws to Microsoft because of a better general attitude towards them,reckoned Alla Bezroutchko, ScanIT's Senior Security Engineer. "Mozilla's Bug Bounty Program, which pays users $500 for reporting critical security bugs, is also a major incentive," he added.

Here's the Checker.

And here's the full report. µ