IE9 provides best protection against socially engineered malware
By Joe Elvin
16/08/2011
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) provides more protection against socially engineered malware than any other web browser, according to new research.
The report from NSS Labs has suggested that IE9 protects against 99.2 per cent of socially engineered threats thanks to its new feature called Application Reputation.
Even without the anti-phishing feature enabled, it still managed to block over 96 per cent of malware distributing websites. If a user was to team IE9 with quality network management software, it would appear to be very unlikely for their computer to not warn against such threats.
Microsoft has been leading the way by some distance when it comes to virus protection amongst web browsers and this has proved to be the case in the latest generation of programs.
According to remondmag.com, IE9 is the only browser which accesses a cloud-based database to warn users against potential viruses.
The next most successful browser was Google Chrome which only protected against 13.2 per cent of socially engineered malware links. Firefox 4, Safari 5 and Opera 11 all scored even lower than this.
Reacting to the figures in an interview with pcworld.com, NSS Labs CEO Rick Moy said: "Microsoft is the most attacked company in the world, so this is something they have a lot of experience with."
