IE9 Blocks 99% of Socially-Engineering Malware

Capable of blocking 99% of all socially-engineered malware, Internet Explorer 9 is the best browser to protect users against attacks for which there’s no patch, since there are no actual code vulnerabilities targeted.

Attacks involving social engineering are designed to “exploit” users rather than actual security flaws, through a variety of techniques from offering victims the promise of cash incentives to scaring them into doing an action which will backfire and infect their computers with malicious code.

While there’s no patch for “problems” that actually sit between the chair and the computer monitor, IE9 is the next best thing, a security barrier against socially-engineered malware as close to impassible as possible.

Just 1% of social engineering attacks bypass IE9, with the browser blocking or warning customers for the rest of 99% of socially-engineered malware. Huge compared to Opera 10 for example, which lets all attacks pass.

The statistics come from NSS Labs, information security research and testing organization, which tested browser resilience against malware in the past as well.

“With a unique URL blocking score of 94% and over-time protection rating of 99%, Internet Explorer 9 was by far the best at protecting users against socially-engineered malware,” NSS Labs revealed.

IE9 has quite an advantage over IE8 as well, which block 90% of socially-engineered malware, and Microsoft reveals that responsible is the evolution of security features in Internet Explorer 9.

“Through its SmartScreen technology, Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 Beta help protect customers by detecting and blocking websites that distribute socially-engineered malware and phishing attacks.

"The difference in performance between IE8 and IE9 above comes from the addition of innovative features such as SmartScreen Application Reputation,” explained Roger Capriotti, Director, Internet Explorer Product Marketing.

“This new feature for Internet Explorer 9 adds an additional layer of protection by warning users when they attempt to download a higher risk application.”

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.