Website browsers started off as a tool to read text pages on the Internet, but now they are now our gateway program to just about everything - photos, movies, live media, storage, voice & video calls, banking and so much more...
The security of our web browsers is constantly under threat, including external threats from the websites we visit and internal threats through the extentions/plug-ins we add to our browsers to increase browser functionality.
Consider the security features of these popular web browsers when picking yours.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge, Windows’ current default browser, is an improvement over its predecessor Internet Explorer (IE). Edge was developed with Windows 10 integration and IE end-of-life in mind, resulting in a powerful and more efficient browser that has Cortana (Windows’ answer to Alexa and Siri) integration and Microsoft Store extensions.
Edge’s main advantage is that it is Windows 10 computers’ native browser, which means it should integrate more seamlessly with the Windows OS ecosystem in terms of power usage and data security. Its built-in security features, called the Code Integrity Guard (CIG) and the Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG), prevents malicious code from loading into a computer’s memory.
Safari
Safari is a graphical web browser developed by Apple for its iOS, iPad OS, and macOS. The current iteration is Safari 13, which was released alongside macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra in September 2019.
Safari 13 is highly secure, as it utilizes Safari 12’s baseline security features such as Automatic Strong Passwords and Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0. These features are augmented by a built-in password strength analyser, FIDO02 USB security key authentication support, “Sign in with Apple” support, Apple Pay capabilities, and increased speed and encryption. Its main drawback, however, is that it is only available on Apple devices, with full capabilities found only on MacBooks and Macs.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It is widely available across platforms, even on Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, illuminos, and Solaris Unix.
Due to Firefox’s open-source development platform, it can be quite unsecure to use on publicly accessible computers. For personal and single-user business devices, however, Firefox is relatively safe, especially once all security features are activated and tweaked to your needs. Some key features are its “Do not track” privacy feature, phishing and malware blocking features, the Noscript Anti-XSS add-on (so you can determine which sites are allowed to execute scripts), the Noscript Anti-Clickjacking add-on (a detector that reveals invisible, malicious links and buttons), and its renowned pop-up ad blocker.
Firefox is also unique in that Mozilla has a bug bounty program, which offers a financial reward to anyone who can identify gaps and holes in Firefox code, so that it can be patched and improved as urgently as possible. Mozilla also promises no legal action against anyone who complies in good faith under its Bug Bounty program, including any claim under the DMCA for circumventing technological measures.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It is the default browser for Google’s line of laptops and Google Chromebooks. Chrome utilises a process allocation model to sandbox tabs. “Sandboxing” is a security mechanism for separating running programs to keep software vulnerabilities from spreading.
Chrome also regularly updates two sets of blacklists, one for phishing and one for malware, which it uses to warn users of potentially harmful sites. It also touts site isolation and predictive phishing protection features that receive regular and critical updates every six weeks and within 24 hours of a known threat, respectively.
Other contenders
The "Chromium Engine" is the base code used by Google Chrome and has been used as a base for a number of newer or specialised browsers.
The next version of Microsoft's default Edge browser will be built from the Chromium engine and promises to give both the security benefits similar to Chrome with extra integration with Microsoft's products, which should include further Microsoft-specific security enhancements.
Call us for security advice
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Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org.
