Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 28th Aug 2009 12:42 UTC
Another instalment of Ask OSNews. A reader sent us in a question about browser security and privacy. "Could you please advise me and your readers on what you consider to be the safest web browser? I am considering the term 'safe' from both a privacy and security stand point."
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Member since:
2006-07-16
Which flaws exactly? I think the main problem with security today is that people are allowed to install random crap from the web. IE8 + User mode blocks everything, so I don't see how you can blame windows. I've also cleaned computers and I've noticed that vista at least cuts down a lot of it. The worst machines I have seen were XP and the browser didn't matter because most of the crap came from people trying to download:
Porn
Pirated material
Random codecs
Click me crap
Your computer is infected crap
So I guess my answer is that the safe browser is the one that is updated and running in user mode. IE has a bad rep but it is really more from 6. IE8 is fine, but so are the alternatives. "
I agree completely. Vista seems significantly more resistant to web infections than XP (more than half of the infested machines I mentioned were XP machines.) I agree that IE in user mode is safer, however, most people don't run this way. People seem to want to run as administrators. This is what I eluded to when I spoke of Windows inherent flaws. Once an administrator, always an administrator. Code can run wild. UAC tries to address this, but it doesn't go far enough (and even then, users complained which led to the more lax UAC coming out in Win7.)