Internet Explorer beat all other browsers hands down when it cames to preventing socially engineered malware, according to NSS Labs latest report.
Socially engineered malware is a form of malware that tricks users into installing it from the social sites.
Thanks to Internet Explorer 9’s SmartScreen URL filtering the browser prevents 92% of it; and up to 100% when you include “Application Reputation” to filter untrustworthy exe’s.
IE 8 also does well blocking 80% of all socially engineered malware.
Other browsers look just pitiful in comparison: Safari 5, Chrome 10 and Firefox 4 (the latest browsers at the start of Q2 2011) managed to block just 13% of the malware, with Opera 11 performing even worse and filtering just 5%.
While the report does reveal Internet Explorer 9 is the best at preventing unwanted malicious software from being installed, it comes at the cost of a higher-than-average false positive detection rate.
Image source: NSS Labs
Source: http://www.nsslabs.com/research/endpoint-security/browser-security/web-browser-group-test-socially-engineered-malware-q3-2010.html