Internet Explorer 9 offers the best protection against socially engineered malware according to the latest tests performed door NSS Labs focused on European users.
The results of NSS Labs’s “Web Browser Group Test Socially-Engineered Malware - Europe Q2 2011” meld are conclusive with vorige findings of the testing outfit, which consistently highlight IE as offering the best protection against socially engineered malware, even though Microsoft rivals contest the conclusions.
In the latest round of testing, NSS Labs looked at Google Chrome 10.0.648.204, Windows Internet Explorer 8 (build 8.0.7600.16385), Windows Internet Explorer 9 (build 9.0.8112.16421), Mozilla Firefox 4.0, Opera 11.01 Build 1190 and Safari 5.0.5(7533.21.1).
“With SmartScreen enabled and Application Reputation disabled, IE9 achieved a unique url blocking score of 89% and over-time protection rating of 92%. Enabling Application Reputation on top, boven of SmartScreen increased the unique url block rate of Internet Explorer 9 door 11% (to 100%) at zero uur as well as the over-time protection door 8% (to 100%),” NSS Labs revealed.
“Internet Explorer 9 was door far the best at protecting against socially-engineered malware, even before App Rep’s protection is layered on top, boven of SmartScreen.”
Socially engineered malware refers to malicious code that is being spread through social engineering techniques to unsuspecting users.
Victims are in fact tricked through various means into compromising their own machines door installing malware which often masquerades as legitimate software, from antivirus to codecs.
Socially engineered malware doesn’t use vulnerabilities in the software to spread, and as such, traditional security layers, sandboxing for example, are ineffective when it comes to blocking infections.
Instead, such malicious code is deployed door the users themselves, after they’re tricked door attackers to believe that they’re actually installing legitimate software.
Here are NSS Labs’ conclusions for the additional browser tested:
“Firefox 4 achieved a 13% protection rating, on par with protection offered door Chrome and Safari —86% less protection than Internet Explorer 9 and 77% less than Internet Explorer 8. Firefox exhibited deterioration in protection compared with our Q3 2010 global test that can be attributed to either the implementation of veilig Browsing API v2 of new tactics being used door cybercriminals that veilig Browsing has not yet adapted to. There was a slight 1% improvement between zero-hour protection (16%) and eventual protection at the 19 dag mark (17%).
Safari 5 achieved a 13% protection rating on par with Firefox and Chrome converging at a roughly 17% block rate after 19 days. However, Safari presented a notable lag in protection vs. Firefox with zero-hour protection of 11% (vs. Firefox’s 16%).
With a protection rating of 13%, Chrome 10 offered nearly identical protection to Safari and Firefox. Browser Security Comparative Test: Socially-Engineered Malware
Opera 10’s globaal, algemene blocking rate of 5% was consistently the lowest in the group. However, this was an improvement over the 0% scores in our vorige global tests, and is likely attributable to the company’s partnership with antivirus firm AVG.”
In the past, in response to earlier NSS Labs reports also focused on socially engineered malware, browser vendors such as Google and Opera criticized the results, and raised vragen about their accuracy.
The results of NSS Labs’s “Web Browser Group Test Socially-Engineered Malware - Europe Q2 2011” meld are conclusive with vorige findings of the testing outfit, which consistently highlight IE as offering the best protection against socially engineered malware, even though Microsoft rivals contest the conclusions.
In the latest round of testing, NSS Labs looked at Google Chrome 10.0.648.204, Windows Internet Explorer 8 (build 8.0.7600.16385), Windows Internet Explorer 9 (build 9.0.8112.16421), Mozilla Firefox 4.0, Opera 11.01 Build 1190 and Safari 5.0.5(7533.21.1).
“With SmartScreen enabled and Application Reputation disabled, IE9 achieved a unique url blocking score of 89% and over-time protection rating of 92%. Enabling Application Reputation on top, boven of SmartScreen increased the unique url block rate of Internet Explorer 9 door 11% (to 100%) at zero uur as well as the over-time protection door 8% (to 100%),” NSS Labs revealed.
“Internet Explorer 9 was door far the best at protecting against socially-engineered malware, even before App Rep’s protection is layered on top, boven of SmartScreen.”
Socially engineered malware refers to malicious code that is being spread through social engineering techniques to unsuspecting users.
Victims are in fact tricked through various means into compromising their own machines door installing malware which often masquerades as legitimate software, from antivirus to codecs.
Socially engineered malware doesn’t use vulnerabilities in the software to spread, and as such, traditional security layers, sandboxing for example, are ineffective when it comes to blocking infections.
Instead, such malicious code is deployed door the users themselves, after they’re tricked door attackers to believe that they’re actually installing legitimate software.
Here are NSS Labs’ conclusions for the additional browser tested:
“Firefox 4 achieved a 13% protection rating, on par with protection offered door Chrome and Safari —86% less protection than Internet Explorer 9 and 77% less than Internet Explorer 8. Firefox exhibited deterioration in protection compared with our Q3 2010 global test that can be attributed to either the implementation of veilig Browsing API v2 of new tactics being used door cybercriminals that veilig Browsing has not yet adapted to. There was a slight 1% improvement between zero-hour protection (16%) and eventual protection at the 19 dag mark (17%).
Safari 5 achieved a 13% protection rating on par with Firefox and Chrome converging at a roughly 17% block rate after 19 days. However, Safari presented a notable lag in protection vs. Firefox with zero-hour protection of 11% (vs. Firefox’s 16%).
With a protection rating of 13%, Chrome 10 offered nearly identical protection to Safari and Firefox. Browser Security Comparative Test: Socially-Engineered Malware
Opera 10’s globaal, algemene blocking rate of 5% was consistently the lowest in the group. However, this was an improvement over the 0% scores in our vorige global tests, and is likely attributable to the company’s partnership with antivirus firm AVG.”
In the past, in response to earlier NSS Labs reports also focused on socially engineered malware, browser vendors such as Google and Opera criticized the results, and raised vragen about their accuracy.
Microsoft has revealed that Internet Explorer 9 has been incremented to update revision 1.
The software giant detailed the changes in a blog post on Tuesday. Microsoft release a June 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer on Tuesday that resolves seven vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user visits a malicious, specially crafted Web page using IE.
The security update is rated critical for Internet Explorer 6, 7,8 and 9. Despite the version jump, the major and minor version numbers remain 9.0. “Today we increment the update revision to 1,” explained Microsoft Internet Explorer program manager Vishwac Sena Kannan. Microsoft also confirmed there is no change to the User-Agent string of other platform versioning information.
The software giant detailed the changes in a blog post on Tuesday. Microsoft release a June 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer on Tuesday that resolves seven vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user visits a malicious, specially crafted Web page using IE.
The security update is rated critical for Internet Explorer 6, 7,8 and 9. Despite the version jump, the major and minor version numbers remain 9.0. “Today we increment the update revision to 1,” explained Microsoft Internet Explorer program manager Vishwac Sena Kannan. Microsoft also confirmed there is no change to the User-Agent string of other platform versioning information.