Microsoft Says IE More Secure Than Firefox

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, says that IE is more secure than Firefox. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize those are fightin’ words right there! Secure your Nomex clothing and other fire retardant gear because I’m predicting a flame war in 3…2…1.

Jones explains in his report Browser Vulnerability Analysis (PDF), that Mozilla has fixed 199 security vulnerabilities since November 2004, when Firefox first appeared, of which 75 were critical, 100 medium and 24 of low importance. Over the same period, a total of 87 security vulnerabilities were fixed in Internet Explorer, of which 54 were critical, 28 medium and 5 of low importance.
Click to expand...
 
damn business people... any developer will tell you that it's not how many bugs are fixed that counts - it's how many remains. and the severity of both. ah, what am i saying, you guys know this stuff. so... FLAME FLAME FLAME!!!
 
http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2007/11/30/critical-vulnerability-in-microsoft-metrics/

Jeff Jones, a director of security strategy at Microsoft published a report today about counting bugs. I blogged a few months ago about why I think counting bugs is less than useful:
Since all software has bugs, it’s more important to consider how long it takes to get a fix out when a security issue is discovered than it is to count bugs. Number of vulnerabilities identified is a function of how many bugs are present, but is probably more influenced by things like who is looking, and how good they are at finding security issues. That makes it a misleading metric.
​
When you compare how long it takes Microsoft to fix Internet Explorer vulnerabilities versus how long it takes Mozilla to fix vulnerabilities in Firefox it becomes clear why he chose to count vulnerabilities in this report instead. Earlier this year Brian Krebs of the Washington Post came up with this when comparing IE to Firefox:
For a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year), exploit code for known, unpatched critical flaws in pre-IE7 versions of the browser was publicly available on the Internet…
In contrast, Internet Explorer’s closest competitor in terms of market share — Mozilla’s Firefox browser — experienced a single period lasting just nine days last year in which exploit code for a serious security hole was posted online before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.​
Click to expand...




​
 
Secure or not, nobody asked for an another browser such as firefox to be made. It gives webmasters a very hard time to have their websites work for both browsers.

Firefox says it is displaying the web in the "right" way. But what is this "right" way when a lot of the websites are not displayed correctly than if they would be when opened with IE?
Sure today you can say the same thign about IE, but fact is that IE started first.

And browser customization is no argument either. There are many great enhanced IE browsers such as Maxthon 2.0 and Avant.
 
greenman said:
Secure or not, nobody asked for an another browser such as Internet Explorer to be made. It gives webmasters a very hard time to have their websites work for both browsers. /quote]

just a quick correction. Netscape came first, and FF is netscape
Click to expand...
 
greenman said:
Secure or not, nobody asked for an another browser such as Internet Explorer to be made. It gives webmasters a very hard time to have their websites work for both browsers.
Click to expand...


oops no edit here and bad BBcode closing. Remember IE has always broken the www spec and still does
 
greenman said:
Secure or not, nobody asked for an another browser such as firefox to be made. It gives webmasters a very hard time to have their websites work for both browsers.

Firefox says it is displaying the web in the "right" way. But what is this "right" way when a lot of the websites are not displayed correctly than if they would be when opened with IE?
Sure today you can say the same thign about IE, but fact is that IE started first.

And browser customization is no argument either. There are many great enhanced IE browsers such as Maxthon 2.0 and Avant.
Click to expand...

I only ever open IE for Microsoft sites... everything else works fine in Firefox.
 
greenman said:
Secure or not, nobody asked for an another browser such as firefox to be made. It gives webmasters a very hard time to have their websites work for both browsers.

Firefox says it is displaying the web in the "right" way. But what is this "right" way when a lot of the websites are not displayed correctly than if they would be when opened with IE?
Sure today you can say the same thign about IE, but fact is that IE started first.

And browser customization is no argument either. There are many great enhanced IE browsers such as Maxthon 2.0 and Avant.
Click to expand...

wow, first person in a while from whom I heard IE-friendly words instead of bashing. means I'm not the only one! ;)
I'm using IE, and don't plan on switching to FF anytime soon. In-line search plugin and I'm set. Big deal, seems to me like a lot of those people are bashing IE just cause it's MS. Ya, in IE6 times, FF had a lot of arguments for it, now...meh...whatever, I'll skip the whole Mozilla trend.

[can't wait for the bashing I'll get ;) used to it by now]
 
M'ichal said:
wow, first person in a while from whom I heard IE-friendly words instead of bashing. means I'm not the only one! ;)
I'm using IE, and don't plan on switching to FF anytime soon. In-line search plugin and I'm set. Big deal, seems to me like a lot of those people are bashing IE just cause it's MS. Ya, in IE6 times, FF had a lot of arguments for it, now...meh...whatever, I'll skip the whole Mozilla trend.

[can't wait for the bashing I'll get ;) used to it by now]
Click to expand...

If MS keeps throwing FUD (like this kind) then bashing will follow. All MS do is throw FUD
 
Shrug to each his own. Microsoft will get companies to listen, that's the problem with this, and we know some of their data could be refuted. What do you expect though, seriously, like it is some kind of god damn surprise.

I use IE 7, and like it a lot. I dislike firefox, and its personal preference. Although I do have it installed, and Opera as well. I'm not as safe because I primarily use IE7? Probably not, but ok what the hell ever, at least I like the browser :\ I guess its just me, and I'm perfectly happy this way :D.
 
Did anyone catch the irony that MS just admitted they fixed less bugs than Firefox.. doesn't that mean they just worked less? who's to say they don't have hundreds of bugs still left.
 
IE7 has been just as safe as FF, Ive heard of more FF vulnerabilities lately than IE7. Then theres the IE7 in Vista 64bit, which is supposed to be extremely secure.

IE6 safer than FF? hellllllllll no. Youd have to be a moron to keep using IE6. But I have no complaints and I have yet to hear any real complaints about IE7.
 
Plus I greatly prefer the UI in IE7 to FF. FF UI has always seemed amateurish, like a skinned app instead of an app that feels like its built into the OS. Same with OS X, I only use Safari thanks to the UI. It really drives me crazy using programs that refuse to accept what the OS looks like and tries to do their own stupid looking theme.
 
idividebyzero said:
Then theres the IE7 in Vista 64bit, which is supposed to be extremely secure.
Click to expand...
O please. Stick a sock in it.

Yea 64bit IE7 might be hella secure but you cant get 1/2 the pages on the net to load. Why? Because there are NO 64 bit plugins (flash, java, ect). Because of this you are forced to use the 32bit version in a 64 bit OS.

Granted this is not MS's problem. Its Adobe and Sun's. But if someone made a car that got 10,000 MPG and no one made tires that were compatible with it. Would you use the car?

Don't boast security in something that hobbles around the internet 1/2 blind.
 
Sorry, cant edit my own posts...

MS saying that their product is t3h win? Big shock there. I don't know of any company that will talk down something they make. If a third party said IE was more secure than FF I might pay attention more, but in this case... meh.
 
DOpamine said:
A: Firefox is a cross platform webbrowser , if there are 199 vulnerabilities found on one of those platforms and far less on another platform does this not expose the platform in question as the arse-about-face-mickey-mouse-ware that it is ?

B: Firefox is open sourced so people can study the source code and actively search for security vulnerabilities and other bugs. If only 87 vulnerabilities have been found in IE that doesn't mean they've all been found.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...rnet_explorer_7_is_still_not_safe_enough.html



pidantic(sp?)
pidantic: pedantic, pedant, pedants, didactic, gigantic

maybe a girlfriend would help , i know of a singles bar

I cant believe that this story passes as [H]ard|OCP Front Page News , this is nothing more than verbal excrement from the marketing department of ... a certain proprietary operating system corporation , especially seeing as there have been so many threads closed because the words GNU/Linux and Freedom have been used.
Mr Moderator , I demand that i be banned from these forums , I have no problems having an account for a discussion forums but i will not be a party to a ....certain proprietary operating system corporation fan club , its just silly , so ban me now and avoid the references to your sexual orientation
Thank you
and goodnight
Click to expand...

one word: what?
 
Even if IE is more secure than FF, IE is a MUCH larger target for the unscrupulous types than FF. I'll take my chances with FF. It doesn't hurt that FF has all these sexy plug ins. :cool: Someone touched it earlier though, This forces both browser developers to create better browsers and that in itself is great for the user.
 
I don't get it...

In going along with an above post, which I truly agree with, just because they found less vulnerabilities doesn't mean it's "safer", it could indeed just mean they haven't found them all. Anyone with half a brain would look at it from that perspective, and this guy just shoved both feet in his mouth, apparently oblivious to this fact.

I'm not "pro" anything, though I don't use anything but FF for the net. To me, with my testing, it's blocked a hell of a lot of more spyware than IE even has, as an example. FF's Adblock Plus, for example, is an excellent plug-in. IE has nothing like it, as far as I know. I don't use any other plug-ins, but I know there are many others, and many other options in FF that are not present in IE, that make it superior in terms of customizing for your "safety".

Sure, everything has vulnerabilities, but I think it's been proven that FF wins-out in the "safety" (nothing is really ever safe on the web), general speed and user-friendly category over IE. After using FF for so long, watching how IE caches pages drives me nuts.

On the web design issue, however, I have to agree to some extent with who posted that earlier. Not from the perspective of "no one asked for another browser", because I for one am glad to have FF. However, FF is a pain to deal with sometimes with web design. Sometimes. I've had things I've had to fuss back-and-forth with while designing that were extremely frustrating, and my coding is perfect. So it's not due to FF requiring "perfect coding" and IE can use "sloppy coding because it sucks" that's the issue. I haven't had that issue in a while, but there are still a few things that can get a little funky between both.

Either way, I prefer FF and it's all I've used for years now. I just have to do my actual design work off line in IE. But in terms of everything else, I prefer FF.
 
amromousa said:
IE is much more difficult to code for than FF..MUCH more difficult. ESPECIALLY IE6.
Click to expand...

Uh, no... with ten years of designing under my belt, I'd have to disagree totally. No idea where that statement is coming from, but it's not accurate. I wish that were the case, considering all I use anymore is FF, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

Either way, I can get things done... no matter...
 
IE = Instrument of Evil. So many malware/virus infections have been had through its security holes.

It should be outright banned in the name of network security.
 
Xathagorra said:
Uh, no... with ten years of designing under my belt, I'd have to disagree totally. No idea where that statement is coming from, but it's not accurate. I wish that were the case, considering all I use anymore is FF, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

Either way, I can get things done... no matter...
Click to expand...
Depends on if you like coding with tables or not. Tables are easy if you just want to get things working, but after learning all the powerful stuff you can do with divs and CSS, you really feel hampered by how much of it doesn't work in IE.
 
Oh no! I'd Better switch back to IE ASAP!!!! /sarcasm

desperate attempt on micro$oft to try to take some market share back. They would be better off hiring a secret team of hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in FF...
 
I have no real 'problems with IE7'. I started using FF around the IE6 release and, overall, I've just found Firefox to be a bit snappier in the loading of Flash content and other things.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but either a.) there's no bookmark toolbar feature in IE (and I'm not talking about the bullshit "favorites center" sidebar...that is NOT a bookmark toolbar) or b.) I'm just missing something.

If a browser doesn't have a bookmark toolbar, I just don't use it.
 
besides... right now im not running FireFox......

with the help of an adddon, Firesomething, I am currently running Mozilla Moonsquid... lol
 
am I wrong in saying FF using less resources than IE7?

It's why I switched back when IE6 was around, but not too sure on IE7 tho I am still willing to bet it uses less, again correct me if I'm wrong. :D
 
next-Jin said:
am I wrong in saying FF using less resources than IE7?

It's why I switched back when IE6 was around, but not too sure on IE7 tho I am still willing to bet it uses less, again correct me if I'm wrong. :D
Click to expand...

I know you are wrong on one part of it. FF is a memory hog and sufferers from memory leaks. At work I can leave IE windows open all week with no problems. If I leave FF open for even 24 hours is will be eating up several hundred MB of memory.

Do a quick search, FF's memory issues is one of the biggest complaints most people have.
 
Using the Seamonkey version of Mozilla I've never had any illicit crap install itself by simply visiting a malware-infected site. I don't know anyone who has, unlike IE.
 
brom42 said:
Do a quick search, FF's memory issues is one of the biggest complaints most people have.
Click to expand...

It's not as bad as Vista. If you're worried about running out of memory, toss out Vista and get a good Linux distro.
 
A linux distro with memory management worth a dime will cache things almost as aggressively as Vista, just not preemptively.

Code: 
[username]@archangel ~ $ uptime
 05:05:13 up 30 days, 12:06,  1 user,  load average: 1.01, 1.02, 1.06
[username]@archangel ~ $ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2013       1997         16          0        293       1117
-/+ buffers/cache:        586       1426
Swap:         3922          8       3913
mrozyczk@archangel ~ $
Oh teh noes! Gentoo is using all but 16 MB of my 2 GB! Linux is soooooooo bloated!
 
stop!theradio said:
I have no real 'problems with IE7'. I started using FF around the IE6 release and, overall, I've just found Firefox to be a bit snappier in the loading of Flash content and other things.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but either a.) there's no bookmark toolbar feature in IE (and I'm not talking about the bullshit "favorites center" sidebar...that is NOT a bookmark toolbar) or b.) I'm just missing something.

If a browser doesn't have a bookmark toolbar, I just don't use it.
Click to expand...

Bingo! IE is perfectly fine but FF is simply a better app. I don't know how else to put it. I didn't even know this was a matter to debate.
 
stop!theradio said:
I have no real 'problems with IE7'. I started using FF around the IE6 release and, overall, I've just found Firefox to be a bit snappier in the loading of Flash content and other things.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but either a.) there's no bookmark toolbar feature in IE (and I'm not talking about the bullshit "favorites center" sidebar...that is NOT a bookmark toolbar) or b.) I'm just missing something.

If a browser doesn't have a bookmark toolbar, I just don't use it.
Click to expand...

same... i just never said anything earlier because i thought it sounded stupid... but it's the honest truth... i can't use a browser without a bookmark toolbar...

i'm actually TRYING to use ie7 now in vista... but.... just aint doing it for me...

+1 for flash loading faster in FF too... my browser downright freezes for about a second and a half while rendering hardocp.com and loading the shockwave for the ads... FF it isn't quite as noticible
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top