|
Firefox versus MSIE
There is a lot of argument over which is the better browser and which should be used. There is a
growing camp of followers that say MSIE is error prone, even when fully patched. There are others
that say there are too many sites which are broken in Firefox. Which is right? Well in a way both
are, and the answer is not to choose one of them as the only browser, but to use both. Firefox for
general browsing, and MSIE for those sites that insite on using MSIE only features.
It is certainly true that the Mozilla org are very quick to patch any exposures found or publish
a workaround, and Microsoft have many security flaws that are still not patched even after
several months. If you do not believe this, then subscribe to the
Windows Secrets Newsletter where you can keep up to date on such things.
It is also true that there are sites that utilise foibles and quirks in the way that MSIE works, and
these often will not work in Firefox, which is better in complying with the published standards. Also
Firefox does not support Active-X unless you add something to do it, and many sites insist on using
Active-X which can leave you open to abuse from other sites. A further point is that Firefox
does not have the useful feature of Trusted, Internet and Restricted zones that is found in MSIE.
So, what I recommend, is to use Firefox, without any Active-X support for general browsing. This is
reasonably safe providing you keep up to date with the latest patches from both Mozilla and Microsoft.
For those sites that really need MSIE, then put them in the Trusted zone, if you are satisfied they are
safe to use. You need to go further though, change the security options on the Internet Zone to similar
to what comes as default with the restricted zone, no scripting, no Active-x, etc. Then if you do, by accident,
arrive at a site in MSIE that tries to do anything malicious, you will get a message saying that
{such-and-such function} is not permitted by your security settings.
|