Don't quote Hegel. Haggle. It scores more marks - Mike Magee
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Internet Explorer 9 is best against malware
AN INDEPENDENT LAB has released a report that reckons Internet Explorer 9 is the best browser to avoid social notworking malware attacks.
Microsoft must be cracking open the champers as a lab report has its IE9 beating the competition for browser safety. NSS Labs lined up Microsoft's new web browser (PDF) against the competition to see how it copes with what it called socially engineered malware. The report tested these malware attacks on various web browsers including Apple Safari 5, Google Chrome 6, Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and Opera 10.
NSS Labs said, "Windows Internet Explorer 9 (beta) caught an exceptional 99 [per cent] of the live threats, in part due to a new application reputation system, leading the pack by a 8.5 [per cent] margin. IE 9's protection includes Smartscreen, which is included in IE 8, and application reputation, which is new to IE."
IE8 came in second followed by Firefox, Safari, Chrome and finally with Opera in last place, allegedly catching zero per cent of the socially engineered malware.
Naturally the Vole piled straight on to exploit the results with product marketing as Roger Capriotti blogged the test results.
"Through its SmartScreen technology, Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 Beta help protect customers by detecting and blocking websites that distribute socially-engineered malware and phishing attacks," wrote Capriotti.
The Internet Explorer 9 beta has been well received so far. For the few people still using IE, this will be good news. But we smell a fish. A lot of companies have previously published good news from 'independent' sources that were commissioned by the companies to run the reports in the first place.
It also seems strange to us that NSS Labs tested two iterations of Internet Explorer but not two iterations of any other browser. The results and talking points also hinge very specifically on the Vole's Smartscreen technology that it engineered for IE9 but wasn't in IE8. µ
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Most unscrupulous vendors pay for "research". Nothing new.
Basically this tells you that you get the study result you pay for. Also nothing new.
Free software = superior performance. Also nothing new.
You get the same sad picture if you look at the security vulnerabilities in the current IE version versus the competition as well.
...there's any other centrally-managed browsers for Windows. It's been 10 years and counting, and there's only one that you can centrally deploy, audit, patch, configure, enforce and lock down with a flick of your Group Policy, fleet-wide or in any other fashion you choose.
Where's the competition? Oh, they're busy tweaking their JavaScript engine again, because that's SO important.
I'm also waiting for more of the competitors to opt into Windows Integrity Control and serve up the equivalent of IE's Protected Mode. C'mon guys, put down the shiny JavaScript engine for a minute...
Most vendors pay for research. Nothing new.
Bascially this tells you that you get what you pay for. Also nothing new.
Free software = inferior performance. Also nothing new.
You get the same picture if you look at the security vulnerabilities in the current IE version versus the competition as well.
Did you even bother to read the (whopping) 20 chart-filled pages of the report??
Page 16:
"This private test was contracted by Microsoft’s SmartScreen product team as an internal benchmark,
leveraging our Live Testing framework. It has subsequently been approved for public release."
So, even if I do use IE 8 & 9 on a regular basis (I've been using MS stuff for over 20 years now.... I guess I should claim ownership of a couple of chairs and maybe a table in Redmond), I guess the report is "somewhat" skewed in MS' favour.
And it isn't in fine print, it's plainly there for anyone to see.....