Malware Block Rate: Internet Explorer – 99%, Opera – 0%

By | December 14, 2010 | 20 Comments

Malware Block Rate: Internet Explorer - 99%, Opera - 0%Or so it seems.

NSS Labs tested 5 most popular web browsers to find out, which one of them offer the best protection against malware.

Tested web browsers

Google Chrome 6.0.472.63
Windows Internet Explorer 8 (build 8.0.7600.16385)
Windows Internet Explorer 9 pre-BETA (build 9.0.7930.16402)
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.10
Opera 10.62 (build 3500)
Safari 5.0.1 (7533.17.8)

Results

Malware Block Rate: Internet Explorer - 99%, Opera - 0%

Judging from the graph above, Internet Explorer 99% did a pretty good job, blocking nearly 99% of all malware, followed by IE8 and Firefox 3.6. On the other hand, Chrome 6 and Opera 10 had one of the worst results.

Malware Block Rate: Internet Explorer - 99%, Opera - 0%

As for the average block time, Safari 5 was way below everyone else (10 x times slower than IE) and was followed by Google Chrome 6, which not only blocked just a minority of all the malware but also took a while to do so.

So here you have it, IE is yet again #1 in the NSS Research. Must be a day of coincidences.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://my.opera.com/Chas4/blog/ Chas4

    Who is the sponsor of the NSS again?…

    • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

      Indeed :-)

  • ToxicCookie

    Aha…Searched for the last malware report they had, which was sponsored by Microsoft by the way.
    http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/microsoft-sponsors-two-nss-reports-ie8-is-the-most-secure.ars

    What struck me as funny though, is how every browser, but Internet Explorer, suddenly has reduced capabilities of blocking malware.

    http://static.arstechnica.com/nss_socially_engineered_malware_july.png

    Anyone else finds this suspicious?

    • http://www.pallab.net Pallab

      Suspicious? There is nothing suspicious about NSS Labs Reports. It’s out and out fraudulent. And most of us already know i.

  • mors

    IE 98.7% and Opera 0 % ? loool, I’m quite sure it’s perfectly unbiased… not. Still mad about the EU complaint dear MS ?

    • MarkG

      Clearly Microsoft are most worried by Opera’s capabilities…

      This is utter tripe, you would have to be a moron to believe this Microsoft paid for spin. (but then the same idiots believe everything they read about Xbox360 on Joystiq and Kotaku, and that’s funded by Microsoft in the exact same manner).

      If you have bottomless reserves of cash, you can make the media say what you want it to say and polls and surveys to say what you want them to say. There are always bloggers and companies willing to take some of Microsoft’s A BILLION dollars on Kinect/WinMo7 “advertising” budget.

      http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/18/microsoft-to-spend-one-billion-dollars-advertising-kinect-and-wi/

  • nvm

    NSS Labs still around? Didn’t they vanish after their other reports were exposed as scams?

  • Andy

    BS. The first time I tried IE9, I got malware installed within the first few days of trying. Those stupid malware that tricks you that there are virus in your system and scanned for you, detected and requires you to delete all your important files. Load of bullocks. Haven’t had any since I’m on Opera. Fly with Opera. Burn with IE.

  • Dr. Brown

    Also consider that they’re testing Chrome 6.

  • daddylo

    When a pre-beta secure than a stable version .. we know everything is right :) ……
    When I try to download IE 8 …. they love me so much they tell me to download IE 9 beta ….. how lovely :) ……

  • badnamed

    Browsers are for browsing… That’s something a antivirus should do anyway…

  • Ryan

    Chrome 6? thats 3 versions behind. Lets redo this test with IE 6, and even up the odds.

  • nobody

    instead of beating dead horse (that this race was set up and IE had to win), maybe somebody will check why opera came out as a complete trash and other browsers weren’t really much better?

    ignoring IE score, that simply was inflated, id like to know how (and if) other results are valuable – please try to separate IE favoritism and other stuff

  • Paulius

    OMG… Face ir one time… IE8-9 ARE NOT BAD BROWSERS… Long time ago it was stated that IE is the safest, but nobody wants to believe it…

  • Michael Johnson

    @nobody: the way these sorts of tests have worked in the past is they select specific malware to test against the browser. It is specifically selected to boost ratings in one browser to the detriment of another.

    @paulius: No one said IE8-9 are bad browsers. Just that this report is bogus. IE8 isn’t bad (it’s not great, either), but I don’t like it and don’t use it. IE9 is light years ahead of IE8, but it isn’t everything MS is hyping it as, since they promote it with specially crafted tests that target exactly IE9′s strong points to the point of ignoring all the bad points.

  • Paulius

    @Michael: Ok, I like to hear that…

    I don’t know why, but I can’t feel any real difference between any browser. But the biggest “lag feeling” for me have Safari and Chrome. IE9 and Fox are the smoothest in any way. IMO.

  • test-1st2-speak

    @Paulius

    have you used Opera for a while to feel that lag… ?

  • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

    Why did you even posted about this bought test??? ¬¬

  • Dave

    Aha and we should eat this marketing stuff

  • http://my.opera.com/DanielHendrycks Daniel Hendrycks

    @Vygantas
    Don’t even post these results when they do another ‘test’ next year.

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