Spyware an Internet Explorer problem?

Hi malware fighters,

Actual percentages may vary, but according to researchers 66% - 90% of Internet users have computers that are spyware infected.

Spyware becomes installed through exploits or drive-by installation. Nearly every time it is an unpatched version of IE that acts as a spyware vector. The users that use alternate open source browsers may surf more or less unhindered by spyware infections. Is spyware exclusively an Internet Explorer problem?

Why a problem, read here the worst case scenario:
http://chooseknowledge.com/Sitemap.htm

polonus

not exactly as spyware infestation is like any other danger linked to market % share …

if You have theoretical 15% IE users , 75% Gecko , 5% Opera 5% rest then of course You will see huge increase in attacks on Gecko to find out it’s vulnerable points …

You think Opera is perfect? close to no bugs no security holes ?

it seems so far but … it’s just because noone from “dark side” considering it worth the effort to research yet

Hi Dwarden,

I cannot deny there is a link between market share and number of infected. But only if there are malware vectors = possibilities aka vulnerabilities.
Now this is not so with Apache versus ISS = 80:15, still Apache has been many times more secure than ISS over the last couple of years. Here your assumption seems to be false.

Only when you use a plug-in to functionally start-up MSIE, you will hit the jackpot. Also from within for instance firefox.

Couldn’t it be, that when IE was developed security was not a big thing, and the number of features only grew and grew?

Just consider this funny example and you have to admit the case IE versus alternate browsers is a little more complicated, as you like to assume or what suits you better: http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=311

greets,

polonus

Ooops wrong thread