Which,more,secure,Internet,Exp computer Which is more secure - Internet Explorer or Firefox?
Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc ----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a
I recently had an interesting inquiry from a Twitter followerasking the question Which would you say is safest, Firefox or IE?Not a questionthat hasnt been asked before, but in light of the happenings of the past fewdays a far deeper question than it may seem on the surface.I work with (andplay with for that matter) many people who are fans of alternative operatingsystems, whose natural response to any question that includes choosing betweenMicrosoft and anything else is always to not choose MicrosoftWe need to morecarefully consider this based on merit and not brandMicrosofts InternetExplorer has been the king of browsers on the internet for 10 or more years nowAlthoughits market dominance has been diminishing somewhat as of late, it still holds acommanding lead.Microsoft also had a rocky start when it comes to the securityof IE, but has worked hard to improve it and made lots of progressOne benefitIE brings to the corporate IT table is the ability to centrally manage itthrough Group Policy Objects, and centrally update through Windows Update andWSUS.The now famous patch Tuesday can be considered another benefit toreceiving predictable updates that processes and scheduling can be designedaroundThe other side of this is that you sometimes must wait a month or morefor a fix (Like the current IE exploit being targeted as noted by SophosLabs).ActiveX has also been a largeworry for administrators as many controls are needed in a business workplace,yet allowing users to install and update ActiveX controls gives 3rd parties theability to run malicious code on users PCs.The final story for Microsoft is theintroduction of Internet Explorer 8While IE8 is more compliant than anyprevious version, it still trails behind Firefox, Chrome, and SafariInternetExplorer 8 makes large improvements toward secure design and awareness ofinteroperability.Mozilla Firefox on the other hand has a different set ofissues to contend withIt is more difficult to centrally manage than IE, and hasno predictable update release pattern.By default Firefox will check withMozilla for updates, but does require that the user accept the updateThey musthave enough privilege to apply the update, and cannot be behind an SSL proxythat may interfere with its signing certificate.Firefox being open source meansthat flaws are often discovered by the public and developers, and patches arequick on the heels of new vulnerabilitiesFirefoxs open nature also means it hasa large suite of available security extensions like NoScript that are able toprotect against JavaScript attacks, as well as click-jacking and othertechniques to exploit browsers.Recently Firefox has faced new challenges fromGoogle, Microsoft, and others in the browser security arena, and the Mozillateam seem up to the challenge of maintaining Firefoxs security respect.Searchingon the National Vulnerability Database for Firefox bugs rated medium or highersince January 2009 results in 56 separate disclosures (Some of which have morethan one flaw).Microsoft has reported 34 for the same period, with the samestatistical note as to many having multiple issues in a single advisory.Themore interesting part that seems to divide the commercial software giant fromthe open source driven Firefox is the methods they choose to use to inform thepublic.The Firefox vulnerability in its JIT compiler was discovered by aFirefox developer and resulted from a public bug that was filed last Thursday(July 10th, 2009)The Firefox community has debated whether it was appropriatefor the bug to be disclosed publicly which led to its exploitation thefollowing Monday.On the other hand, The Register has published an articlesuggesting Microsoft knew of the most recent IE flaw for more than a yearbefore making a disclosure and patching the flaw.There is no clear answer towhich browser is more secure, the only conclusion a security expert can come tois that surfing the web is always a potentially risky activityHopefully thisinformation provides you with more facts to help you make an informed decision.
Which,more,secure,Internet,Exp