Which Browser Blocks The Most Malware? Surprise!
In Q2 of 2011, NSS Labs performed a test of web browser protection against socially-engineered malware targeting users around the globe.
“Socially-engineered malware is a widespread problem, claiming one third of internet users as victims. The use of free browser-based reputation systems to assist in the fight against socially-engineered malware is a strong use of cloud technologies. However, in this global test of socially-engineered malware, we found that not all vendor implementations and daily operations yield the same results.“
So who did the best at blocking online threats? The result of one lab’s tests may surprise you.
Windows Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) caught an exceptional 99.2% of live threats. Read more..
(A full report of their tests is available as a PDF download. Anyone interested in the true state of Internet insecurity should take a quick read.. pick up a few interesting [and scary] factoids.)
Today’s quote: “A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all – he’s walking on them.” ~ Leonard Louis Levinson
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
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Tech - for Everyone 
I just perused through the PDF. I use Firefox and I am not changing at the moment. They used FF v4 in this test. v7 is out now. And I use many security add ons with my FF. NTM, I have my browser running in a SandBoxie environment and I back it up EVERY day with FEBE. I like to tweak my browser and make it my own. With 37 add ons..I guess so :)
But good for MS..after 9 browsers..they finally know what to do.. Impressive?
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delenn13,
I only have 14 add-ons. (To see my personal list of Firefox security add-ons, click here.) But, like you, due to those add ons, I will not be “switching back” just yet.. at least not on my primary machine.
.. The only winner of my coveted FOTIS Award last year was Sandboxie.
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Woohoo! A silver star! Thanks. Yea, I love my Sandboxie. What is the neatest thing..When the kids come over, I throw them in the Sandbox and when they leave..Just delete it all.. No muss no fuss!
Here’s a list of all my addons..Compliments of Extension List Dumper. I know some say Incompatible but they aren’t..just forced.
Application: Firefox 6.0.2 (20110902133214)
Operating System: WINNT (x86-msvc)
October 10, 2011
Total number of items: 37
· Adblock Plus 1.3.10
http://adblockplus.org/en/
Ads were yesterday!
· Add-on Compatibility Reporter 0.9.2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/?src=api
Allows add-on compatibility issues to be reported to Mozilla
· Autofill 3.5
http://www.tohodo.com/
Fill form fields automatically on page load.
· BarTab 2.0 (Incompatible)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/67651
Drink now, pay later: put your tabs on your bar tab!
· BetterPrivacy 1.67
http://netticat.ath.cx/extensions.html
“Super-Cookie Safeguard”
· checkCompatibility 1.2
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/checkcompatibility/
Reinstates the extensions.checkCompatibility preference.
· CoLT 2.5.2
http://www.borngeek.com/firefox/colt/
Makes it easy to copy link text and locations.
· CoolPreviews 3.5
http://www.coolpreviews.com
Browse Faster. Preview and share links and media without leaving your current page.
· deskCut 0.6.0.3
http://deskcut.mozdev.org
Create desktop shortcuts from the context-menu. Windows, Linux and Mac supported.
· DownloadHelper 4.9.5
http://www.downloadhelper.net
Download videos and images from many sites
· DownThemAll! 2.0.7
http://downthemall.net/
The mass downloader for Firefox.
· eCleaner 1.4
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ecleaner/
Clears preferences left by extensions after uninstallation
– Email This! Bookmarklet Extension 2.3.0
http://www.lazyrussian.com/my-projects/email-this-firefox-extension/
Email This! will send your recipient the link, title, and a selected summary of the webpage you are viewing.
· Evernote Web Clipper 5.0.0.177572
http://www.evernote.com/
Provides a button and context menus to easily add a selection or an entire page to Evernote
· Extension List Dumper 1.15.2
http://www.sogame.cat/
Dumps a list of the installed extensions.
· FEBE 7.0.2
http://softwarebychuck.com/
Backup your Firefox data
· FireShot 0.93
http://screenshot-program.com/fireshot/
Adds the ability to take a screenshot of the page entirely, edit it and save in (JPEG, GIF, PNG or BMP), print, copy to clipboard, send to external editor or e-mail it. Additional annotation tools (text, freeform drawing, highlights) provide quick and easy way of documenting of captures.
· Flashblock 1.5.15.1
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/
Replaces Flash objects with a button you can click to view them.
· Freemake Video Converter Plugin 1.0.0
http://www.freemake.com
Free Video Converter to AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, SWF, 3GP, MPEG, DVD, Blu-ray, MP3, iPod, iPhone, iPad, PSP, PS3, Android, YouTube.
· Freemake Video Downloader Plugin 1.0.0
http://www.freemake.com
Download video free from YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, MTV, ComedyCentral, Dailymotion, Megavideo, Metacafe, Vimeo, Break, 40+ sites with our Free Video Downloader
· HTTPS-Everywhere 1.0.3
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Encrypt the Web! Automatically use HTTPS security on many sites.
· IE View 1.4.5.1
http://ieview.mozdev.org/
Open pages in IE via Firefox menus
· ImTranslator 4.5
http://www.smartlinkcorp.com
Starts Smart Link Translator via right-click or Tools menu.
· Interclue 1.6.3 (Incompatible)
http://interclue.com/
The ultimate link augmentation multitool
· Java Console 6.0.27 (Incompatible)
· Java Quick Starter 1.0
· KeyScrambler 2.8.2.0
http://www.qfxsoftware.com
KeyScrambler protects you against keyloggers
· LastPass 1.74.0
http://lastpass.com/
Last Password you will ever need
· Memory Fox 7.4
http://www.browsermemory.com/
A Mozilla Firefox Memory Recovery and Retention Add-On
· NoScript 2.1.4
http://noscript.net
Extra protection for your Firefox: NoScript allows JavaScript, Java (and other plugins) only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site). This whitelist based pre-emptive blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality… Experts will agree: Firefox is really safer with NoScript :-)
· PDF Download 3.0.0.2
http://www.pdfdownload.org
Allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file: download it, view it with an external viewer or view it as HTML.
· ShowIP 1.0
http://code.google.com/p/firefox-showip/
Show the IP address of the current page in the status bar. It also allows querying custom services by IP (right mouse button) and Hostname (left mouse button), like whois, netcraft. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard. This extension was formerly known as ipv6ident. License GPLv2 only.
· Snagit Firefox Extension 1.2.1 (Incompatible)
http://www.techsmith.com/redirect.asp?product=snagit&lang=enu&target=powertoyfirefoxhome
Captures images, scrolling web pages and more right from Firefox!
· Stay-Open Menu 1.5.10
http://www.shadetreeapiary.com/extension/
Facilitates opening multiple items from the Bookmarks Menu and various other bookmark/history/tab related dropdown menus.
· Tab Utilities 1.1
http://addons.mozilla.org/addon/59961
Open Bookmarks/History/URL/Search in new tabs, and more utilities for tabbed browsing.
· URL shortening and photo uploader combo for twitter 1.5
http://blog.socialwhale.com/2009/04/30/social-whale-firefox-extension/
URL shortening and photo uploader combo for twitter using twt.gs and twitpic.com – (c) 2009
· WOT 20110704
http://www.mywot.com/
Web of trust.
Your spam filter is probably gonna have a “Hay Day” with this list. Probably will take my silver star away from me.
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delenn13,
It seems to me I read somewhere (or maybe some old-timer told me) that long ago, when there was no Internet or iPods, and dinosaurs roamed the earth, parents would fill a large wooden box with sand (from the beach, type sand) and plonk their children down in it to play. (I could be wrong about that.)
I love your “modern day version” of that!
As for your list: I did spend some time cleaning up the text, but your TP Silver Star is safe – and I thank you for sharing with us. It is clear to me that you have spent more time exploring the wonderful world of Firefox Add-ons than I have (I only recognized about 2/3rd’s {maybe a bit more} of them). There’s a few there I am eager to try.. as soon as time allows.
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delenn13,
I have some FF add ons based on techpaul’s article/recommendations, however, I saw some on your list that I want to a try as well.
In terms of Sandboxie, will it work with Win7? I tried it with Vista a while back and it just made my screen giggle.
Does it conflict with avast! Free version since it has its on sandbox, however you can not turn that one on and off at will
Thanks for another great article techpaul, but like you and delenn13, I am staying with FF.
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ebony,
I have not experienced any issues with using Sandboxie to “sandbox” my web browser on either Vista, or machines with Avast! .. or machines with Vista+Avast!, so I guess all I can say is “your experience may vary”, and give it a try.
Also, I am running it on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as we speak.
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Sandboxie works great for me on Win7… To quote TechPaul, I would feel naked without it! The only time I don’t use it is for updates.
Cheers!
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kstinman,
Me too.
And, sadly, on today’s Internet, I would feel naked without it.
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Sorry for the lapse in posting…It’s Thanksgiving here. So kinda busy. Plus I am watching a “Not Ready for Prime Time” app bundle for smartphones(which I am thinking of getting) for charity like the Humble Bundles(Love the Humble Bundles..have them ALL) being announced by CNet and the developers don’t even have it set with the Android Market Place. Not to mention no ticker/progress bar.. (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!) It’s all coming out on Twitter. Too funny!
@TechPaul Yes, I know. I was one of those plunkees. Used to make some cool sand castles and no waves to knock it down.
@ebony I, at the moment, am using XP; but kstinman and Techpaul seems to have answered that. I have Win 7(still in the box..don’t ask.)
I am using MSSE(fewer FP’s and it doesn’t slow my PC down). So can’t help you there either.
The 3 most fav of all my addons..FEBE(for backup), BarTab(because Ii usually have about 50 tabs open) and Deskcut(I need to be able to make shortcuts.)
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Happy Thanksgiving, delenn13!
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Thanks!
Dang, that game bundle won’t be ready until tomorrow..Way to lose business.
On Twitter: ” Android Version of the Corona Indie Bundle available tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.” Was gonna relax with a few new games..Oh, well…maybe shoot some zombies instead.
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delenn13,
While I have not had any first hand experience shooting zombies since my days absorbed in Duke Nukem 3D (wait.. those were mutants..) .. I have been told that it can have therapeutic properties.
(I shoot digital humans ala Call of Duty.)
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It’s therapy for me. i have arthritis in my fingers, neck and spinal cord. So between exercise and pain meds(it’s why i ramble a bit/a lot), I play games to keep my mind off the pain.
The Humble Bundle is almost up to a million again. And 1 day left. Games all total are $98.00 but can pay the average which is under $5.00 if you like.
This new one [url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-20116231-58/get-5-indie-games-android-ios-for-99-cents/?tag=nl.e796]Get 5 indie games (Android, iOS) for 99 cents | The Cheapskate – CNET News[/url]..I don’t know anything about… I do know they are not organized. No progress bar..since they are promising a 6th game if over a 100,000 downloads so that would be nice to see. The Android side won’t be ready until tomorrow and I had to Twitter and ask how long it lasts..They said 2 months.
So this is my recommendation, since it is gonna last 2 months. WAIT!!! Read comments, follow them on Twitter..check their website…[url=http://www.coronaindiebundle.com/]Corona Indie Bundle – 5 Hit Indie Games for Only $0.99. Available for iOS and Android.[/url] then decide if you want to buy. They say the games are worth $8.00 all total.
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delenn13,
I am sorry to hear that you are one of those who must do their best and live with chronic pain, And I do wish that the field of medicine could achieve some .. breakthrough in that area, and do so mucho muy mas pronto.
I would not wish it on my worst enemy..
I am not sure what to say to you.. (I’m 100% awkward at these kinds of things) so I will only say that I do truly and sincerely hope that your “good days” far, far outnumber those not-so-good days.
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@Techpaul,
Thanks for the good wishes. They do offer some great drugs, all highly addictive. So I live on the OTC stuff. The pain I have learned to live with; it’s the migraines that take me down for days. :( The memory losses is the worst part. Anyways…
The Android side of the Corona Indie Bundle games are still not up from what I can see. The Humble Bundle cracked a million again.
I see the BB Code didn’t work. You must use HTML(How to Make Lasagna)?
Life goes on. :) And I got to cut the last of(maybe..depends on the weather) my Swiss chard in the garden.
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delenn13,
Yes, WordPress uses HTML. (I made the first URL “clickable” myself .. but didn’t have time to do the second [but I agree with your summation of “wait”..])
I can only empathize, and sympathize, with those whose lives include constant “pain management”…
(As soon as I am elected Supreme Benevolent Dictator Of All Things, I will outlaw chronic pain [and snow – except on certain mountain tops].)(Remember folks, vote early, and vote often!)
I will not comment on swiss chard.
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Wow. I’ll have to take a look at that study, and figure out some more addons or security features on Google Chrome, which is my preferred browser. Love, love, love it. Haven’t had much trouble with malware so far, and I detest Internet Explorer…but that is just me. Thanks for the info!
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Now that i look at the results more carefully, at least the Firefox and Chrome versions were old, I’m not sure about Opera or Safari. If I recall correctly, IE9 is the most recent version. It’s not accurate research if they are using old versions. :/
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Samantha,
While I hope you think I am not arguing with you (‘cuz I’m not) I think it fair to assume that they (the lab) did not intentionally skew the results.. Nor do I know exactly how much better the latest versions would do (though, it is probably safe to assume better than the older version).
I think it’s more a matter of the fact that Chrome, and more so Firefox, seem to come out with a new version every time you blink… (almost a non-exaggeration!)
As I said (above), I am not switching from my fave browser to IE9. And I am not hinting that anyone else should.
But I do feel better about my non-Geeky friends and family who stick with Internet Explorer (and “average computer users” everywhere).
I’ll conclude by repeating the adage – the best antivirus is between the ears. Staying away from porn and “file sharing” sites is a good way to start….
Good to see you here again!
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Oh don’t worry, I don’t think you’re arguing. That is true and something I didn’t think about, I’m just fresh-ish out of a research class and the results kind of me made me rage a little :) Yeah, I guess that is true to know that IE9 is helping the less computer-savvy of our family and friends. I’m probably going to have to clean out my parents’ computer sometime soon.
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Samantha,
In fact, I am going to award you a TP Silver Star too.
Well I think those were the latest at the time the study was conducted. But I do applaud your careful reading and critical thinking.
Because yes, one must look carefully. I forget who it was that said it.. but there’s a ‘scale’ of falsehoods (I paraphrase): “there’s lies. Then there’s *darn* lies. And then there’s statistics.”
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Lies, damned lies, and statistics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics
Watch out spam filter, here I come again.
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delenn13,
My memory was niggling at me that it was probably Twain …… thank you for doing my footwork for me.
I happen to be reading his collected short stories at the moment (just finished A Day At Niagara). The man could tell a story.
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To be fair, I think at the time of the experiment/test FireFox v4 was, probably, the most current at the time. Mozilla has had a rash of version changes in the past few months. I am still on 6 and V7 is out now. I haven’t felt like updating them because I have 3 PC’s. We each have our own PC and then if anything is wrong or we are running something on the main PCs..we have the 3rd one. I have 2 versions of FF on the 3rd one..with each of our profiles. So I have my FF and he has his..with all addons, settings etc.
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delenn13,
Agreed.
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Wow, I can’t believe how much malware Internet Explorer 9 blocks compared to the other browsers! Once more people find out about these survey results, I bet some will switch to Internet Explorer 9 from their existing browsers. In addition to malware blocking, what do you think is another important feature for a browser?
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Alexandra Lawrenz,
It’s good to see you here again, and that is a good question! Firefox is my browser, because of the add-ons NoScript, Adblock Plus, Flash Blocker — because the Internet is not just the cybercriminal’s playground, but there are other vile humans there too…
I won’t use IE9 until I can find an effective way to block advertisements with it.
(And, yes, I’m serious. I stopped watching TV; largely due to finally getting fed up with the advertising [the ‘straw’ was the pharmaceuticals commercials].)
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