Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Every major browser has its partisans, but which browser earns the highest praise from impartial security analysts?
Speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco yesterday, researchers at Accuvant Labs presented the results of a three-month security evaluation of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The goal of the study was to determine which browser is the most secure against attack — an important consideration, given that browsers continue to represent the widest vector for attacks.
The winner: Chrome. Accuvant’s analysis concluded that Chrome was, by far, more secure than IE. In turn, IE was found to be somewhat more secure than Firefox.
However, Accuvant was quick to caution that any browser security evaluation inevitably involves a fair amount of apples and oranges.
“It’s difficult if not impossible to make clear comparisons,” Joshua Drake, Accuvant’s senior research consultant, told the conference audience. Metrics are subjective, vendors of protection technology don’t make complete data available, and browser makers don’t always disclose patches or say how severe the vulnerability patched was. To compensate, the team normalized information to the greatest extent possible.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that Google commissioned the study, titled Browser Security Comparison: A Quantitative Approach. Google said it wanted to advance industry knowledge and discussion of best practices. Results were first presented at the SecTOR conference in October 2011.
Read the rest about browser security at eSecurity Planet.
RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS
-
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
-
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
-
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
-
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
-
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
-
Top 10 AIOps Companies
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
-
What is Text Analysis?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
-
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
-
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
-
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
-
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
-
Finding a Career Path in AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
-
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
-
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
-
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
-
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
-
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
-
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020