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Author Topic: Anti-Virus  (Read 24736 times)

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Offline calcforth

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #45 on: December 10, 2010, 06:31:28 pm »
Quote from: ScoutDavid on December 10, 2010, 10:19:58 am
However, I can almost believe that IE is safer on Windows, since it is connected to Windows itself, HOWEVER, this can also make it more easier for hackers to get to the OS
This is true for IE7 and below. And they are security disasters. IE8 is not tightly tied to an OS... that's why it's significantly more secure - but much slower as well.

Read this. Note that only Chrome was "left standing", but also "Neither the iPhone exploit nor the IE8 exploit managed to escape the OS-supplied sandboxes that protect these platforms. Without escaping the sandboxes, the impact that flaws can have is reduced, preventing, for example, writing to hard disk (and hence, preventing installation of malware)."

So yes, IE8 is more secure - this is not only Microsoft's boasting. But "the most secure browser on the market"? No, for now it's Chrome. Will the IE9 be able to retake this crown? Who knows.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #46 on: December 10, 2010, 06:35:28 pm »
With IE8, it's so ressource intensive that on my Intel Celeron 2.93 GHz with 1 GB of RAM running XP, my computer freezes during 10 seconds when IE8 is starting up. Firefox takes 1 minute to start up, but it doesn't take incredible amounts of ressources like IE does, Opera starts up in about 2-5 seconds and Chrome about 3-6. I can't imagine people who accidentally chosen to upgrade to IE8 on their 1.6 GHz Pentium 4...

Also I wonder where does Opera stand among other browsers in terms of security?
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Offline calcforth

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #47 on: December 10, 2010, 07:39:48 pm »
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 10, 2010, 06:35:28 pm
Also I wonder where does Opera stand among other browsers in terms of security?
Theoretically it's pretty poor: it's about on par with Firefox, but unlike Firefox Opera does not push updates automatically. Practically... it's different story: few people bother to support it - both on webmaster's side and on rootkit seller's side. If you just visit some random sites and want protection from common malware then Opera is pretty good, but if you are objective of some kind of targeted attack - you may consider yourself already cracked. Actually I'm not sure even Chrome and/or IE8 will save you against targeted attack - and these are the best browsers today from security POV.

P.S. Note: Firefox and Safari developers plan to implement sandboxing in the future.

P.P.S. Another note: most IE8 security features (including sandbox) are only available and used in Windows7.
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Offline FinaleTI

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #48 on: December 10, 2010, 07:45:59 pm »
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 10, 2010, 06:35:28 pm
With IE8, it's so ressource intensive that on my Intel Celeron 2.93 GHz with 1 GB of RAM running XP, my computer freezes during 10 seconds when IE8 is starting up. Firefox takes 1 minute to start up, but it doesn't take incredible amounts of ressources like IE does, Opera starts up in about 2-5 seconds and Chrome about 3-6. I can't imagine people who accidentally chosen to upgrade to IE8 on their 1.6 GHz Pentium 4...

Also I wonder where does Opera stand among other browsers in terms of security?
As for Firefox taking a long while to start up, is that like Firefox 3.x?
Cuz the beta for Firefox 4 is incredibly fast compared to 3.6 for me, both starting up and browsing.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2010, 07:46:21 pm by FinaleTI »
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #49 on: December 10, 2010, 07:49:48 pm »
Quote from: calcforth on December 10, 2010, 07:39:48 pm
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 10, 2010, 06:35:28 pm
Also I wonder where does Opera stand among other browsers in terms of security?
Theoretically it's pretty poor: it's about on par with Firefox, but unlike Firefox Opera does not push updates automatically. Practically... it's different story: few people bother to support it - both on webmaster's side and on rootkit seller's side. If you just visit some random sites and want protection from common malware then Opera is pretty good, but if you are objective of some kind of targeted attack - you may consider yourself already cracked. Actually I'm not sure even Chrome and/or IE8 will save you against targeted attack - and these are the best browsers today from security POV.

P.S. Note: Firefox and Safari developers plan to implement sandboxing in the future.

P.P.S. Another note: most IE8 security features (including sandbox) are only available and used in Windows7.
Actually from time to time Opera updates automatically. If you had them turned OFF, after 5 or 6 restarts, it will eventually auto-update.

As for getting less viruses on Opera I guess it could be because fewer people use it so virus creators won't bother as much. I may be wrong, though. Was it that reason why Mac OS got so few viruses compared to Windows?
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Offline calcforth

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Re: Anti-Virus
« Reply #50 on: December 10, 2010, 09:14:29 pm »
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 10, 2010, 07:49:48 pm
As for getting less viruses on Opera I guess it could be because fewer people use it so virus creators won't bother as much. I may be wrong, though. Was it that reason why Mac OS got so few viruses compared to Windows?
Well, it was. Before MacOS X security in MacOS was even worse then in Windows - yet it had less malware. MacOS X raised the bar so today it makes even less sense to try to write something for Mac. The popularity and percentage of vulnerabile systems are meaningless by itself: malware authors are attracted by product of these two measures. Because this is expected value (mathematical term) of "fresh meat" for buildbots.

Actually the most popular vector of attack is not even browser! It's Java plugin! It does not auto-update (well, it offers to do that but does not auto-update by itself), it often comes preinstalled but rarely is used (often people forget they even have it installed), so if you have out-of-date Java plugin then it does not matter what kind of browser you are using and how secure that browser is. Then there are three contenders for the next position: IE6, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader (AKA Acrobat Reader) - and only after that come other browsers. IE6 is less secure then Flash or Reader but it becomes increasingly less common, too, so it's probably number three or four by now, but real disaster are Flash and Reader: many sites can not be used without them so you can not just disable them like you can do with Java, they are supplied by just one vendor, so you can not switch to other implementation (well, there are some Reader replacements - but they have compatibility ptoblems... there are nothing for Flash). That's why recent versions of Chrome include Flash and PDF plugins: they can not make them secure like the rest of browser, but they at least can keep them up-to-date!
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