With increasing cyber-attacks, how safe is your current web browser?
Browser security is more crucial now more than ever, to reduce the increasing cyber risks amid the remote working norms brought by the pandemic. According to the latest report by NSS Labs, the security levels of various web browsers have been examined to identify phishing and malware protection.
The study analyzed Google Chrome:version 81.0.4044.113 – 81.0.4044.138, Mozilla Firefox: version 75.0 – 76.0.1, Microsoft Edge:version 83.0.478.10 – 84.0.516.1, and Opera:version 67.0.3575.137 – 68.0.3618.125. It is expected to help remote professionals as well as businesses to harness the supremacy of security setups – to avoid cyber attacks and secure critical data.
As per the statistics, phishing protection rates have risen from 79.2% to 95.5%. In the case of malware attacks, the topmost block rate was found to be 98.5%, while the least possible block rate was 5.6%. However, the overall data security against both phishing and malware attacks has improved with time. This is due to the increase in the consistency of product usage.
The Perfect Communication Mechanism for CISOs to Mitigate Cyber Risks
The vulnerability of users to socially engineered malware is a huge risk, since once it enters the system, there are a large number of data compromise risks – bank account details and all sorts of personal data theft, with devastating consequences.
Unsurprisingly, similar techniques are used for phishing attacks too. The victims are lured to sites by impersonating banking, charity, payroll, social media, and other valid websites. Often users are tricked into providing their passwords, bank account numbers, credit cards, and other confidential information.
Besides, the landing pages from the phishing websites are another approach utilized by the attackers – by exploiting the victim’s systems and implicitly install malicious software.
Acting Up Against Cyberattacks Is a Necessity
To defend against dangerous malware and phishing attacks, browsers generally apply cloud-based reputation systems that can scrounge the internet for malicious sites and sorts out the content accordingly. The systems add them to blacklists or whitelists, and also assign such websites with a score.
The facility to warn the potential victims about a malicious website keeps web browsers safe. This can combat different criminal attacks, including phishing, malware, and others.
According to Vikram Phatak, Founder at NSS Labs, as noted in the report – “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been forced to work from home and now have unprecedented remote access to corporate resources.
Threat actors are shifting tactics to target these remote employees who may not benefit from corporate protection. This makes the protection offered by web browsers more important than ever.”