IE8 best at blocking malware sites

A recently released report claims that Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is more than twice as effective at blocking malware sites than its nearest rival.

According to NSS Labs, which conducted the Microsoft-sponsored study, IE8 blocked 69% of the 492 malware-distributing Web sites that were included in the survey data. Mozilla’s Firefox, meanwhile, blocked only 30% of those same sites. “I was surprised that IE8 did as well as it did,” Rick Moy, president of NSS Labs, said in an interview Tuesday. “But Microsoft has put a lot of effort into security in IE8.”

NSS tested six Windows-based browsers — IE8 RC1, Firefox 3.0.7, Safari 3, Chrome 1.0.154, Opera 9.64 and IE7 — against so-called socially engineered malware: Sites that dupe visiting users into downloading attack code. Typically, the download is disguised, often as an update to popular software such as Adobe’s Flash Player.

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