I get several pitches from researchers, marketers, and vendors during the course of a week touting some sort of interesting information about information technology. Many of the pitches aren’t worth much, but every once in a while one actually grabs my attention.
Early this week, I received information about a study by NSS Labs, which clearly showed that Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 was significantly better at blocking malware than any other browser tested. In fact, their study showed that no other tested browser even came close to challenging IE9.
Needless to say, those results struck me, not only as a bit odd, but also as the opposite of accepted conventional wisdom. So, I downloaded the report (PDF) and studied their methodology. To my surprise everything seemed to be on the up-and-up, with the results well-documented and the conclusions sound. Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 does a much better job of blocking malware sites - who knew.
So, what do we do now? Obviously, the study concentrated on just one security problem for which web browsers are susceptible - we can’t use it as the only criteria for choosing a web browser. However, the study does suggest that perhaps it is time information technology professionals reassess their web browser choices. When is the last time you took a close, objective look at your current web browser’s security capabilities?
