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Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome and Firefox in Malware-Blocking Tests (computerworld.com) 126

Posted by EditorDavid from the fighting-over-phishing dept.
An anonymous reader quotes Computerworld:Microsoft's Edge easily beat rival browsers from Google and Mozilla in third-party tests of the behind-the-scenes services which power anti-malware warnings and malicious website-blocking... NSS Labs says Windows 10's default browser is better at blocking phishing and socially-engineered malware attacks than Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox... According to NSS Labs of Austin, Texas, Edge automatically blocked 92% of all in-browser credential phishing attempts and stymied 100% of all socially-engineered malware (SEM) attacks. The latter encompassed a wide range of attacks, but their common characteristic was that they tried to trick users into downloading malicious code. The tactics that SEM attackers deploy include links from social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, and bogus in-browser notifications of computer infections or other problems.

Edge bested Chrome and Firefox by decisive margins. For instance, Chrome blocked 74% of all phishing attacks, and 88% of SEM attacks. Meanwhile, Firefox came in third in both tests, stopping just 61% of the phishing attacks and 70% of all SEM attempts... Both Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox rely on the Safe Browsing API (application programing interface), but historically, Mozilla's implementation has performed poorly compared to Google's. No shock: Google created the API. Edge also took top prize in blocking attacks from the get-go. In NSS's SEM attack testing, for example, the Microsoft browser stopped nearly every attempt from the first moments a new attack was detected. Chrome and Firefox, on the other hand, halted 75% and 54% of the brand-new attacks, respectively. Over a week's time, Chrome and Firefox improved their blocking scores, although neither reached Edge's impressive 99.8%.
The researchers spent three weeks continuously monitoring the browsers on Windows 10 computers. But in the real world, Edge runs on just 5% of all personal computers, while Firefox runs on 13% and Chrome on 60%.
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Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome and Firefox in Malware-Blocking Tests More

Microsoft Edge Beats Chrome and Firefox in Malware-Blocking Tests

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  • Hopefully Edge crashes less in the spring creators update due Wednesday.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's interesting that Edge performed so well, but, here's the problem (from the article):

      But test scores like these have not helped Edge grow its share of the browser market . . . . . Since mid-2015, when Windows 10 and Edge launched, the latter's share of the former has continually dropped.

      Edge may do well in this one set of anti-malware tests, but overall, as a web browser, it is broken and completely useless. Edge lacks basic functionality and user interface features that have been commonplace in browsers, including Internet Explorer, for a decade or more.

      Of course, I shouldn't be surprised at this. The entire fiasco that is Windows 8 and 10 demonstrates pretty clearly that Microsoft is completely cl

      • Re:Stability? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 15, 2017 @08:59AM (#55372173)

        Edge lacks basic functionality and user interface features that have been commonplace in browsers, including Internet Explorer, for a decade or more.

        Like what? You can't even give one goddamn example?!

        Shit, modern browsers barely have any UI at all, regardless of whether we're talking about Firefox or Chrome or Safari or Opera or whatever other modern browser you want to name. Their UIs consist of a short row of tabs, a toolbar with a few icons and a text input for a URL, and then a large area rendering the web page.

        It's fucking absurd to say that Edge's UI is somehow "lacking" when it's pretty much identical to all of its competitors! If Edge is lacking in some way, then so is every other modern browser!

        The only real problem with Edge is that it runs on Windows only. That's why a lot of us who'd love to use it can't. We use OSes like macOS or FreeBSD, which Edge doesn't currently support, while Chrome and Firefox and other browsers do.

        If Microsoft ported Edge to other major OSes, then I think we'd start to see its usage grow. A lot of us are sick and tired of Firefox and moz://a shitting all over us users, and we don't really want to use Chrome, either, because of Google's involvement. And we sure as fuck won't go anywhere near Opera, now that the Chinese are allegedly involved with it. Pale Moon destroyed its reputation during the AdNauseam debacle. So we're stuck using browsers like those until Microsoft gets Edge ported to other OSes.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          An easily accessible "back" button right next to where you right-click. This is by far the greatest non-keyboard time-saver in a browser UI, especially since most pages assume your hands are not on the keyboard when using them. And if the words "but you can change it..." are about to be typed here, then Firefox wins by default because of the great plugins.

          Also, complaining about privacy on others and shitting all over users when using Microsoft products is laughable. Edge has a bad UI, some stability issues

          • I don't know about your mouse, and I don't know if Edge supports this, but on Linux on my personal laptop, I use one of the typical many-button mice that are available today, so to go back I just click the button that's on the left side of the mouse.

        • Edge isn't all that great, even if you could run it on Linux or other OSes. Unless I'm missing something, it lacks all the extensions that the other browsers have, and of course one of the big, big ones is Ublock Origin. Whatever ad-blocking Edge has built-in surely pales in comparison. Or, if you're even more paranoid, and use stuff like NoScript etc., that stuff just doesn't exist on Edge.

          Protecting you from simple phishing attacks that target non-tech-savvy users really isn't all that useful when the

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Last time I checked, Edge had problems downloading attachments in gmail and hotmail.
          Being able to download files is kind of a key feature, and making your own browser play well with your own email site should be something that your iron out long before you launch.

        • If Microsoft ported Edge to other major OSes, then I think we'd start to see its usage grow. A lot of us are sick and tired of Firefox and moz://a shitting all over us users, and we don't really want to use Chrome, either, because of Google's involvement. And we sure as fuck won't go anywhere near Opera, now that the Chinese are allegedly involved with it. Pale Moon destroyed its reputation during the AdNauseam debacle. So we're stuck using browsers like those until Microsoft gets Edge ported to other OSes.

          Oh really? [microsoft.com]

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Luthair ( 847766 )

          Exactly how is Firefox shitting on you? By using less memory than other browsers? By dropping an ancient system to modify the UI?

          Edge would never find any marketshare on other OSes any more than Safari on Windows did. There is no compelling reason to use it, its not the fastest, its not the most secure, its dev cycle is tied to OS releases so it always lags on features.

        • Like what? You can't even give one goddamn example?!

          Shit, modern browsers barely have any UI at all, regardless of whether we're talking about Firefox or Chrome or Safari or Opera or whatever other modern browser you want to name. Their UIs consist of a short row of tabs, a toolbar with a few icons and a text input for a URL, and then a large area rendering the web page.

          Probably because it works well that way. But what about how by design, Edge makes it very hard to change settings that users commonly want to change, and its whole settings menu is a total pile of shit (also mostly by design -- Microsoft wants you to use the browser in its stock config and actively discourages changing things, such as default search engine and privacy settings, which are buried in there pretty far; not to mention Edge sends all of your search terms and clicked links to Microsoft and you can

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The entire fiasco that is Windows 8 and 10 demonstrates pretty clearly that Microsoft is completely clueless about user interface design.

        You consider Windows 8 and Windows 10 becoming the top two most widely used desktop/laptop OSes to be a "fiasco" for Microsoft?! Here in reality, where you don't seem to be, we all realize that both of those products have been very successful.

        If there has been a "fiasco" during this era, it's the actual fiasco involving open source desktop environments. According to you th

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          yes. when windows isn't installed by default to computer vendors then come back and we'll compare numbers Baba

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by epine ( 68316 )

          Windows 8 and Windows 10 were successes. Linux's inability to capture anything more than maybe 3% of the desktop market after two decades of trying is the real failure here.

          Of the 10% of the population who were willing to fight constant battles with DRM and game-proof their hardware, Linux on the desktop captured nearly 30% of the market.

  • turn off scripting (Score:2, Insightful)

    by evanh ( 627108 )

    problem solved.

  • But... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ctrl-alt-canc ( 977108 )

    ...does it block Windows ?

  • But Edge is malware itself. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All browsers are malware these days, Firefox 57 is extension breaking malware, Chrome is ram stealing malware and Safari is Mac malware.

  • Maybe true for the stock browser, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ToTheStars ( 4807725 ) on Sunday October 15, 2017 @08:18AM (#55372095)
    Firefox has addons for ad blocking, 3rd-party request blocking, script blocking, and other security and privacy enhancements; use those, and this ranking will reverse itself.

  • Because they achieve their goal by sending all the URL's you visit to someone else's servers. That, of course, is bad because you have no control what else they will do with that information.

  • And in other news... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hyades1 ( 1149581 ) <hyades1@hotmail.com> on Sunday October 15, 2017 @08:28AM (#55372121)

    A brick doorstop was 100% effective at blocking phishing and socially-engineered malware attacks. It also performed nearly 98% as effectively as Edge at rendering websites properly.

    We shall leave aside, for the moment, the question of whether Microsoft's telemetry should be considered "malware".

  • Does anyone else suspect... that this is because Chrome and Firefox both allow downloading of Firefox?

    Right now, Firefox appears to have a big, ripe target on it.

    It doesn't help that there are a lot of WebGL based games that insist on Firefox, despite being supported on other browsers which disallow plugins.

    • Old web culture fromthe 00's, when the US government put out a warning not to use IE, and Firefox was the internet's Golden boy?

      • Firefox was never the "golden boy". It's derived from Mozilla, which is derived from the public parts of Netscape.

        It took for freaking ever before you could build a working browser with those bits.

        Until you could do that, it was totally irrelevant, because no one could "tinker": it wasn't a workable thing.

        It was surpassed by other things before it ever became buildable, and has been trying to become relevant ever since.

  • It fells to me this is just telling you that the malware writers aren't targeting bypassing edge, and are concentrating on chrome. If edge had a larger user base, and was worth attacking, then the ways around the blocking of malware would be found, and we'd see a change in these stats.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      In many respects that is the same advantage linux and osx have over windows. Or pick your favorite hobby os and kernel... virtually no malware affects it.

      It may not tell you much about the quality of that software, but the advantage is still real.

      In other words, doing your banking from a machine running Haiku (based on BeOS) might not be a bad idea...

  • Chrome is malware (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Sunday October 15, 2017 @09:18AM (#55372203) Journal

    https://www.gnu.org/proprietar... [gnu.org]

  • I've tried, but I can't get it to run in Fedora.

    Okay, I lied. I didn't try.

  • Edge uses spyware (phones home) to monitor your browsing habits to pair with a list of unsafe for Windows or bad for business websites, so of course it's going to find more. Most Linux websites and non-Microsoft hardware are probably on their list. At least Firefox and Chrome users GET TO VOTE on what websites are actually malicious or not. I wonder how much it costs to get a competitor listed? Simple example: Ever wonder why you keep getting malware warnings for video sites and it's getting worse? Hollywoo

  • YARUS on /. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by prefec2 ( 875483 ) on Sunday October 15, 2017 @10:03AM (#55372267)

    Yet another rubbish and unreliable study on Slashdot. I checked the article, but I couldn't find what they actually measured this result, how they tested it and I could not find a replication documentation. Without this is just a marketing claim. I also would like to know who paid for that study and why. If it was part of a research project what is their goal.

  • Its market share may be very low now, but isnâ(TM)t it worth it to evaluate a security profile based strongly on privacy? Wouldnâ(TM)t many hacks be mitigated by virtue of the same code that blocks tracking, ads, and fingerprinting?

    Worth a shot at least.

  • Sure... (Score:3)

    by XSportSeeker ( 4641865 ) on Sunday October 15, 2017 @11:56AM (#55372683)

    You know also a good way of blocking most of those? Using ad blockers and other privacy oriented plugins, most of which Edge does not support.

    And then, people should know that these tests are always giving different results because the stats change all the time... here:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

    Here:
    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

    Just keep using whatever you like and feel more comfortable with, all browsers have their own vulnerabilities and risks.

  • computerworld is pro windows, a tangent from the IBM PC is god "cover a variety of enterprise IT topics (with a concentration on Windows, Mobile and Apple/Enterprise)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Were taking their word Edge is best as one can't prove them wrong anymore. Best most have is EICAR to test malware ability of any program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] vx.netlux.org and their database of malware was forced down very early and my source of test files.

    I take any test from computerworld as o

  • I see Firefox didn't do so well in this test. However, I'm back nowadays on Firefox (from Safari) on both my Mac and the media PC that's running Windows 10. Linux only runs on my servers, which don't usuall run a GUI.

    Seriously, you may want to give it another shot. The current beta has the new user interface, which is very sleek. Also, the're revamping the plugin architecture. Although it sucks for existing plugins, I have no doubt a more simple plugin arch is greatly going to benefit stability.

    Plus they've

    • [Firefox] The current beta has the new user interface, which is very sleek.

      WTF? The only way to say anything good about the new interface is to compare it with Australis, which is a disaster of Gnome3 or Metro proportions. Anyone who cares the slightest bit about usability uses appropriate extensions and/or Pale Moon (although the latter has other downsides).

  • Inverse correlations because ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Sunday October 15, 2017 @01:12PM (#55373001)

    ... Edge is the least-used browser and attackers aren't going to expend much energy going after it.

    The others are high-profile and coders hammer away at them.

    Not mentioned in the article (and fairly so because of relevancy) is that Edge sucks so hard that Nature abhors it.

  • Browser with no market-share beats out one of the world's most targetted browser?

    How could this be???

  • Edge sucks so bad that users don't even turn it on. 100% effective against malware and phishing.
  • I see this headline and I start thinking maybe I should look into the viability of pushing my staff towards using Edge. I don't know why I thought there might be useful information in the comments on an article about a Microsoft program, but I'm half-asleep so I took a look. What a waste of time. 100 people saying they hate Microsoft and that Win10 is spyware.

    Nothing brings out the crybabies, trolls and flamers to chase away any substance like an article about something Microsoft.

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