whitelisting vendor Bit9, Firefox topped the list of 12 widely deployed desktop applications that suffered through critical security vulnerabilities in 2008. These flaws exposed millions of Windows users to remote code execution attacks.
Just to put things into perspective, the security of a system is entirely dependant on the end user having the common sense to have in place, all the applications as they fell necessary to protect their system, however loose or tight they wish it to be.
This also includes subscribing to sites that provide ample warning of vulnerabilities, and in some cases, work-around fixes. The more 'protective' information gathered, the better prepared the user is for any security 'attack'.
Having said that, I switched to Firefox 3 at the time of the last IE7 fiasco, and on the back of some very good advice, freely given by Members of this Forum and also contained in a number of various articles that I researched without prompt.
Throughout the IE7 fiasco, I hum'd and haw'd as for days I tried to stay up with MS Security Notifications advising of this and that work-around fix. And all for what?? To continue with a browser where IE7 was constantly telling me "Internet Explorer has stopped unexpectedly, and has restarted", sometimes up to five or six times a session?? No way.....I'd had enough!!
Four weeks ago, I switched to Firefox 3 and quite frankly, haven't looked back. FF3 loads far quicker than IE7 ever did, has all the protective and other add-ons that I could ever wish for, and the interactive features are brilliant. Not only is it very easy to navigate, by far the best part is that it has NOT ONCE FAILED OR STOPPED UNEXPECTEDLY during a session, even with multi-windows open......IE7 could NEVER handle it!
I have my protective measure in place........it's called Firefox 3 and Add-ons, plus my AV etc., of course.
Not the first time or the last.