What's the safest web browser to use?
 

What is the safest web browser to use other then firefox? I am wondering if anyone could recommend a safer web browser to use now that i heard that firefox has just as many security flaws as internet explorer.

Sarenax, I moved your post to a new forum, but only because it wasn't really related to the product whose forum it was in originally. You didn't do anything wrong, in other words. :-)

I don't know if there's one clear winner with regards to browser security, partially because not all security risks come from within the browser. If your flash plugin is vulnerable, that can be exploited in any browser. Additionally, the answer changes over time, so the best approach may be to just keep an eye out for known security problems and be cautious in general.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but one known security problem is with the version of Java - another cross-browser technology - that Mac OS X uses.

There's an unaddressed bug that folks regard as pretty dangerous; folks are unhappy that Apple hasn't patched it yet, and are recommending that Java be disabled in all Mac OS X browsers until that bug is fixed. In OmniWeb you can disable Java in the Security pane of Preferences. I believe the same is true in Safari, as well.

Other things you can do to make yourself more secure is to be careful when clicking links in email. You can be sent an email with a link to a site that looks like your bank's website but actually isn't; it's a site that wants you to get confused and enter your PIN so they can log in on the real one.

It is also worth pointing out, that having a similar number of security flaws as Internet Explorer does not necessarily equate with being as unsecure as IE (and vice versa). It also depends on how quickly they are (a) identified, (b) patched and (c) how severe the flaws were in the first place. I think Mozilla has a good track record with dealing with all three of those when it comes to Firefox. It is difficult to say with MS, Opera and Apple as they are closed source apps (apart from Apple's web rendering part) so you never know when some problems were identified and how long it took to patch them. However, Apple and MS have both been guilty of taking an awfully long time to fix some things (e.g. Java example above).

To get to the real point of my post - the only safe browser is actually you. Don't do stupid stuff with your browser and you are going to be safer (not necessarily safe, mind) no matter which browser you use.

I've heard that Google Chrome should be the most secure browser to use.

My choice would be Firefox. It has security problems from time to time but the guys from Mozilla are fast in releasing patches and new versions. Install some ads blocking extension + block script and you will be fine while browsing online.

I have been using Firefox and do find it to be pretty safe, especially when it lands on suspicious and uncertified web sites. I like that you can control whether to add a security exception or not. Having said this though I too recently found some flaws with Firefox, especially the new plugin-container exe running in the background. And I did receive an infection not too long ago while surfing with firefox. So Im wondering how safe Chrome and Safari are? I know chrome is pretty fast - supposedly the fastest - but to me that automatically means that its probably not the safest. Any input?

The bots are becoming better lately. Soon they will moderate forums and ban users who point out they are bots.