Browser Security News

Taking a page from Microsoft’s playbook for Internet Explorer, Google wants to get its Chrome browser preinstalled on new computers. Chrome’s market share on PCs is currently less than one percent vs 70 percent for IE and 20 percent for Firefox. Google plans a major marketing drive when the beta stage ends in January.

Security exploits still target browser vulnerabilities, but attacks on browser plug-ins and vulnerable third-party controls such as Flash and Acrobat are becoming more common. That means Firefox users need to be as cautious as users of Internet Explorer.

The shine is gone as some Google Chrome users return to Internet Explorer and Firefox just three weeks after the Chrome browser’s launch. Net Applications found Chrome use down substantially from the first week of its release. Google’s Chrome drew fire from privacy advocates for its data collection. IE remained the dominant Web browser.

Redmond on Monday continued to rebuff assertions that a "suggested sites" feature in Internet Explorer 8, currently at Beta 2 release, invades user privacy. IE8 Beta 2’s suggested sites feature sends user information to Microsoft based on the URLs typed into the browser’s address bar.

Google’s speedy Chrome browser is gaining fans, with one percent of the browser market already testing the beta application. Stripped like a hotrod, Chrome is lightning fast, and with isolated tabs, a crash in one doesn’t bring down the browser. Many more users are testing Google’s beta application than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 beta.

I happened to install Google Chrome (Alpha) the same day I installed Internet Explorer 8 (Beta). I noticed immediately, as I’m sure many of you have, that both browsers isolate tabs in different processes. Unix folks have known about the flexibility of forking a process forever. In Unix, fork() is just about the easiest thing […]

A privacy feature built into the second beta version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 browser isn’t as private as advertised. The InPrivate Browsing feature in Microsoft’s latest browser is designed to delete a user’s browsing history and other personal data that is gathered and stored during regular browsing sessions.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 includes a number of security and privacy features that allow it to keep pace with competing browsers such as Firefox and Safari. Many users of Internet Explorer seem to appreciate Microsoft’s privacy protections, which are designed to protect users’ browsing information.

As CNET News first reported last week, Internet Explorer 8 will include a way to surf somewhat anonymously, allowing the user to suspend browsing history, cookies, and other identifying information. Mozilla had considered such a feature for its Firefox 3 release, but dropped it for technical reasons. Apple Safari also includes a similar feature.

Seems like all you have to do is mention “porn,” and the Internet Explorer (IE) 8 tipsters crawl out of the woodwork. IE 8 looking like a November releaseI noted yesterday that Microsoft only had 11 more days within which to deliver the more customer-focused IE 8 Beta 2 if it were to hit its […]