Is Web Browser A Factor Affecting Security?

Thursday 2 June 2005 @ 1:58 am

Recently a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of browser maker Opera Software was given to 2800 people to test the hypothesis that “Is web browser choice a factor affecting security“. This survey revealed that many people still don’t realize how applications might affect overall system security. Personally, I do not entirely trust all kinds of survey, but somehow I quite agree with the outcome of this survey.

51% of those respondents thought that their choice of browser software could be a factor in whether their systems become infiltrated by malicious software, while the rest thought otherwise. Of that 49%, 17 % thought that the browser played no role in overall system security and 32% said they didn’t know about the fact web browser could be one of the sources of malware and spyware.

Quoted:
Chief technology officer at Opera Software, HÃ¥kon Wium Lie suggested, “Changing to a more secure browser is one of the simplest ways for Web users to make surfing safer and minimize the risk of falling victim to virus, spyware or phishing attacks”.

In fact, there are several other ways to improve browser security such as simple adjustments to Internet Explorer’s security zone settings (whether through configuration dialogs or registry hacks) can dramatically improve overall system security. Before I switched to Firefox more than 2 years ago, I set any trigger of Active-X should prompt me for notification because I know some Active-X scripts are nasty. :D

[Source]

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2 Responses to 'Is Web Browser A Factor Affecting Security?'

LcF - June 2nd, 2005 at 8:48 am
in Internet age, web browser is an open door for security threats. How well you secure the door(browser) is more important than your choice of web browser.

P/S: IE open a open a big door by using ActiveX.
SapiensBryan - June 2nd, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Exactly !!

I’ve seen a 3-page A4-size Active-X script which will plant an autorun script into the StarUp, then when we turn on the PC next time, the script will be triggered and start formatting the harddrive.

So, better becareful when visiting some website with nasty Active-X script running, if we do not secure the browser properly.