Wednesday, March 30, 2011

More Secure Browsing

For most of the past year, my primary web browser has been Google Chrome with all plugins disabled. I selectively enable plugins for a few sites I trust, or I can enable it on the fly for a single session on a site. I haven't had a single virus / trojan hit since switching over. It's also eliminated a lot of my frustration with Flash ads and auto-playing Quicktime audio.

Google Chrome isn't necessarily immune to any security threats, but it's survived three straight years of pwn2own without falling - a pretty good track record. But if you browse with all those common plugins enabled, you're asking for trouble. On any given week, there seems to be a new severe zero-day Adobe attack.

Anyone that feels like they're more secure because they browse with Flashblock should try this (or any number of websites that show how Flashblock doesn't prevent Flash plugin hacks): http://hackademix.net/2008/06/08/block-rick/