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Say it ain’t true, Firefox. The popular browser’s reputation has taken yet another hit when a new study by application security vendor Cenzic revealed that Firefox leads the field of browsers in terms of total vulnerability (yes, even besting Internet Explorer):
According to Cenzic, Firefox accounted for 44 percent of all browser vulnerabilities reported in the first half of 2009. In contrast, Apple’s Safari had 35 percent of all reported browser vulnerability, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was third at 15 percent and Opera had just six percent share. [...]
As to why Firefox’s numbers were so high, Cenzic has a few ideas.
"It’s a combination of different things," Lars Ewe, CTO of Cenzic, told InternetNews.com. "They’ve gotten more traction as a browser, which is good for them and the more you get used the more exposure you have. As well a fair amount of the vulnerabilities have come by way of plug-ins."
One key area that Ewe said was responsible for a number of reported Firefox vulnerabilities is with how the browser handles plug-ins.
"The plug-in architecture that they have is a selling fact for the browser and one of the reasons why I love using it," Ewe said. "They can’t control security aspects of all the plug-ins and the vulnerabilities are a side effect of that."
Sean Michael Kerner of the InternetNews explains: Link
IE7 and IE8 Crashes and Hang Ups
I’ve received a few emails about a looping bug in some ad scripts on the blog that crashed Internet Explorer 7 and 8 (apparently, it didn’t affect Firefox). I’d like to thank those of you who took the time to let me know. I think the issue is fixed – but if you still see any problems after flushing your browser’s cache, please let me know. My email is simply alex at this blog’s domain dot com (I’m sure you can figure it out).
Upcoming Queue
Remember that we’re having a little friendly competition for the Neatorama Upcoming Queue. Top 5 Submitter (based on Front Paged submissions, not total subs) will win very cool prizes from the Neatorama Online Shop. Top submitter will get an iPod Nano, and you’ve still got time so get crackin’!
The frontrunners as of today:
Please read the UQ FAQ and Submission Tips to increase your chances of getting your submissions promoted to the blog’s front page! Remember that copypasta submissions (that’s copying and pasting stuff directly from the article) will decrease your chances of being promoted 
In the Great Upcoming Queue Revolt of 2009, Neatorama reader Shon commented how Neatorama takes a long time to load. This was quite surprising to me, since we spent a lot of time, money, and effort to make Neatorama’s front page – long and full of pictures as it is – loads fast. Well, as fast as it could if you’re on broadband, that is (sorry, dial-uppers! No amount of optimization will overcome a slow connection).
So, I spent some time last night poking around, and sure enough: Neatorama’s front page took its sweet-*ss time of 15 to 20 seconds to load on Internet Explorer 6.0 (the only IE copy I have on my computer). That ain’t right – the front page content takes less than 2 to 3 seconds to load on Firefox. I think the difference is how Firefox renders the page as it downloads, versus IE displaying everything only after everything has been downloaded.
A while ago, we’ve moved calls to slow external ad servers to the end of the Neatorama page. This lets the content be displayed on Firefox browsers even before you see the rest of the page loads. It sure beats staring at a blank page on IE!
So, if you’re that 1 in 3 Neatorama readers still using that slow-poke Internet Explorer, it’s time to give Firefox a chance! Link
