The Hindu Business Line : Popular

A YEAR ago, data released by web analytics firm WebSideStory made news around the world. It said Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer (IE), was losing market share, albeit a small per cent, to other browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox, Opera and old rival Netscape. In November 2004, Mozilla released a new version of Firefox to enthusiastic response from the world. IE lost some more market share.

Statistics is again making news. The only difference this time is that it may have brought the smile back to those at Microsoft. A recent report by Symantec, which makes security software, says that in the first half of 2005, the Mozilla family of browsers, based on open source software, were found to have 25 vulnerabilities while IE had 13 confirmed vulnerabilities. The Internet Security Threat Report of Symantec rated 72 per cent of the Mozilla vulnerabilities as high severity. As compared with this, 62 per cent of IE's vulnerabilities were rated with high severity.

The report does not give a complete picture about which browser is more secure. It's because while Microsoft, with closed source codes of IE, can discreetly fix flaws and let the world not know of them, the open source development nature of Firefox would make any vulnerabilities — and fixing them up — obvious. Even then, the report has thrown up a vital question: is Firefox a safe alternative to IE as was propagated?

It may be recalled that Firefox capitalised on its image as a more secure Net browser than the IE, after a number of high-profile vulnerabilities were found in the latter that led to security risks such as virus attacks. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (USCERT) had issued advice that computer users can reduce their exposure to IE's vulnerabilities by opting to use a different Web browser. This announcement, in June last year, had given a tremendous boost to the use of alternative browsers such as Firefox.

That secure image of alternative browsers, and particularly that of Firefox, has now come under the scanner. Many experts are wondering whether it would be appropriate for Mozilla Corporation, which develops and markets Firefox, to claim it is more secure. But Mozilla says that when a flaw is detected, it reacts faster than Microsoft. And so far it has successfully plugged the security flaws that were detected.

The price of popularity

The security issues Firefox faces stem from its own success. According to data, as of May this year, Mozilla's browsers handled 7 per cent of the Web traffic. It is estimated that Firefox has over 50 million users. As it grew in popularity in such a short span of time, Firefox increasingly became a target.

Virus creators and their ilk usually like to target a critical mass rather than going after a small community. Even Microsoft's Windows was perceived as a safe bet against viruses in the early eighties, when Apple's Macintosh machines were more popular and hence under attack by virus writers. Now, it's just the other way round.

Going forward, apart from security threats, Firefox will also have to deal with increasing competition - from IE and other rivals. While Microsoft seeks to protect its turf, others such as Opera are also stepping on the gas. Recently, Norway-based Opera, that has 1 per cent of the browser market share, announced that its flagship product is now available free of cost. Earlier, the company used to charge $39 for an ad-free version of the browser.

Surely, when it comes to Internet browsers, the statistics is going to be fun in the days to come.

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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