Tuesday, December 4th 2007
Microsoft Says Internet Explorer More Secure Than Firefox
Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director at Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, following his recent report putting Windows Vista ahead of Linux and Mac OS X for security, has now placed Internet Explorer ahead of the open source Firefox browser in a long-term comparative study. According to his analysis, fewer security vulnerabilities needed fixing in Internet Explorer than in the competition. Jones explains in his report Browser Vulnerability Analysis (PDF), that Mozilla has fixed 199 security vulnerabilities since November 2004, when Firefox first appeared, of which 75 were critical, 100 medium and 24 of low importance. Over the same period, a total of 87 security vulnerabilities were fixed in Internet Explorer, of which 54 were critical, 28 medium and 5 of low importance. He also notes that security updates are currently only being released for version 2.0 of Firefox, while Microsoft provides full support for earlier versions of Internet Explorer.
Source:
heise Security
40 Comments on Microsoft Says Internet Explorer More Secure Than Firefox
I have had zero spyware crap on my computer after switching to Firefox years ago. M$ is pulling these numbers out of their hats just to look good, or so it seems.
Not only that but IE7 IS more secure than FF, if you actually did any research for yourself you'd know that the numbers they apparently "pulled out of nowhere" are in fact true. IE7 is more secure and more compatible with standard tech on the internet. What FF has over IE7 is the multitude of extra plugins which make it more secure, more compatible etc.
You want a secure browser, get Opera.
Truly, IE7 is a LOT better than IE6 was - doesnt make it perfect just yet.
www.webdevout.net/browser-support-summary The individual scores are not weighted, but you get the idea. It's all over the web. No sense in hiding from the truth that IE7 sucks a big one. Hell, when it came out people were calling to boycott it b/c it was worse than IE6 in some ways and definitely nowhere near FF (or Opera obviously, which was your only qualifying remark).
You are partially right about FF's extensions. They sure do make it even more secure. Hell, with adblock plus, filterset g, no script, and w/e other blocking/supporting ext. you like, there's no way in hell IE can EVER touch that level of security. There's almost no point for me to even run a scan for spyware/malware/etc b/c I NEVER get any haha. Try that with IE. Get back to me when you have to reinstall windows. :laugh:
I try not to be rude, but if you're going to spread FUD, do it on a site with only noobs that will believe your BS.
I use IE7 exclusively. No problems at all.
I tried FF but didn't really find it any more useful than IE (which I was used to).
P.S. having greater market share doesn't give one the right to ignore standarts :rolleyes: it is sometimes a real nightmare to adjust code for IE...