Firefox Security Goes Head-To-Head With Microsoft's IE7

Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser may have the lion's share of the general market, but when it comes to security types, Mozilla's Firefox open source browser is an even contender, according to a security survey released Monday.

Security-minded people also were quicker to try out Internet Explorer version 7, researchers with the SANS Institute found, though it didn't appear to sway Firefox fans, and the general public quickly is catching up in IE7 adoption.

"Security people are overall more aware of the flaws in Explorer and more likely to play with other browsers," says Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute and chief technology officer for the Internet Storm Center. "More common users might not feel comfortable trying out something new. Not as confident."

Swa Frantzen, a handler at the Internet Storm Center, a cooperative cyberthreat monitoring and alert system under the SANS Institute's umbrella, surveyed the browsers that accessed the Storm Center's own Web site and compared the data to the browsers that accessed a general travel Web site. Frantzen figured that the Storm Center's site, by the very nature of it, would draw security-minded people and the second site would draw more of the general public.