IE Superior In Blocking Social Malware

According to security researchers at NSS Labs, it's easier to block socially-engineered malware though Microsoft's IE (Internet Explorer) than through most other Web-browsers that are regarded more highly for the simple reason that people using IE have too low dexterity to make such malicious programs work. IT World published this in news on December 16, 2010.

Actually, to examine different browsers' capability for resisting URLs that attack with socially-engineered malicious programs Microsoft commissioned NSS Labs for carrying out the task. Accordingly, the Lab concentrated on innate browser technology's efficacy towards preventing access to websites or portals that were ridden with malware such as sacreware.

An assessment of Internet Explorer's ability as also that of other browsers for isolating malware that arrived through social engineering exercises was thus performed. Consequently, it was found that IE in beta version overtook other versions with a success rate of 99%, while the latter blocked 90% of the said kind of malware assaults.

Furthermore, the research found that Safari, Chrome and Firefox all of which separately blocked better than all the IE versions ever created, prevented socially-engineered malicious programs with a success rate lower than 20%.

Also according to the study, major browsers were very good at resisting clickjacking i.e. web-links, which took straight onto sites, which downloaded malicious software on victims' PCs devoid of their knowledge. IE utilizes SmartScreen Filter for scanning Malwardian Clickjack trials and it introduces a system that detects software reputation for increasing its numbers.

Nevertheless, it can't be said that IE is more secured compared to other browsers. Due to its Protected Mode vulnerabilities, Chrome, Adobe Reader X along with some other applications which depend on IE actually were less safe compared to if they didn't use the popular browser.

Significantly, Google has criticized NSS Labs' mode of its experiments, which discovered that Internet Explorer was best for resisting socially-engineered malware. The Register published this in news on December 16, 2010.

Reportedly, NSS Labs conducted the research using Chrome 6 despite the latest Chrome 8 available. So Google, which claimed that its browser was in general secure, challenged the NSS experiments' worth.

Related article: IE & Gmail Show Up with Alarming Vulnerabilities

» SPAMfighter News - 12/29/2010