There are many discussions about who is the most secure browser. In the last few month people are more aware to the fact that the browser we use can be dangerous, due to recent security flaws discovered and highly publicized in both Internet Explorer and in Mozilla.
With the rollout of Windows XP service pack 2 Microsoft claims that windows and Internet Explorer are more secure then ever before. But recent discoveries show otherwise and although Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser in the world, the wind of change started to blow with the release of Mozilla’s FireFox 1.0PR, and for the first time in many years IE market share started to drop, as many users migrated to the new kid in the block, FireFox.

In the browser market there are three major players. Microsoft with IE, Mozilla based browsers and the fast and lean Opera.
So who is the safest browser?
To answer this question we first need to point out one fact. Most hackers will use well known vulnerabilities in your browser to hack in to your system. Having said that, in order to determine who is the most secure browser we’ll take a look at known vulnerabilities in each browser, and see how their respective developer handled those flaws.
In this review we’ll try to answer the question which browser has less vulnerabilities and how long it takes to fix new security flaws. In order to come to a conclusion we’ll take a look at the 2003-2004 period and compare Internet Explorer, FireFox and Opera browsers. The data is taken from Secunia.com which is one of the leading provider of IT-security services.

Internet Explorer 6.

As of October 2004, Internet Explorer 6 holds 69.8% of the browsers marker share.
According to Secunia.com 44 security advisories where issued for Internet Explorer 6 during the period 2003-2004. Out of the 44 advisories, 16 remain unpatched (36%). 27 of the 44 advisories are ranked as “Highly critical” and “Extremely critical” flaws (ranks 4 and 5 of 5), out of which, 5 still remain unpatched. The oldest unpatched flaw dates 2003-03-13.

Internet Explorer Advisories (source)

Mozilla – FireFox

Mozilla based browsers holds 17.0% of the market share as of October 2004
In the time period of 2003-2004 FireFox issued 14 advisories. Out of the 14 advisories, only 2 remain unpatched, and both ranked as “Less critical” (rank 2 of 5). 2 of the 14 advisories where ranked as “Highly critical” (4 of 5) flaws, none was ranked as “Extrmrly critical”. The oldest unpatched flaw dates 2004-08-30.

FireFox Advisories (source)

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