It's always been the fastest and most convenient web browser that's sought after, but for those of us security conscious professionals, browsers that place convenience first, can often create some cause for concern. In 2020 we've reached the point where most browsers are now lightening quick but how do they compare, when it comes to keeping your privacy protected? Well that's what your here to find out.

In a recent study conducted by NSS Labs, Conclusive results show a fairly wide discrepancy between the least and the most secure web browsers. The study independently tested malware protection, and phishing protection of the most popular products: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera, and the results might be somewhat surprising...

Each of the browsers were tested identically with 32,267 discrete tests using 1065 unique samples of malware over 34 days, and 47,274 discrete tests using 2,443 unique phishing URLs over 18 days.

Here's how they fared. 

Phishing Protection Rates

Microsoft Edge which uses Microsoft Defender Smart Screen stands out in front of the pack providing a 95.5% protection rate, 8.6% better than the runner up, Google Chrome, 9.6% over Mozilla Firefox and 16.3% over Opera.

In a comparison of malware protection, the division between the top and the bottom of the list expands. 

Malware Protection Rates

In this study Microsoft Edge stands out again providing an average 98.5% protection rate, followed by Mozilla Firefox 86.1% and Google Chrome closely with 86.0%. Opera performed very poorly when tested, blocking only 5.6% of malware samples. 

These results say quite a bit, however there is much more to discuss when measuring browser security. Other aspects one might want to consider are: frequency of updates and patches (which Google leads the pack), support, the data collection practices of the publishers, and compatibility of browser extensions (which can boost web security.) There are many other options available, such as the Brave browser (which focuses on privacy) or Safari. All of which come with their own pros and cons so we recommend trying them all out to find what works best for you or your organization.

At ZCS Systems, all things considered, we use and support Mozilla Firefox.