Microsoft has published a report that evaluates the security performance of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox through a detailed comparative look at vulnerabilities. The 'Web Browser Vulnerability Analysis' report finds that over a period of three years, Internet Explorer proved to have fewer vulnerabilities than Mozilla Firefox.

Perhaps more important than the overall numbers is the positive impact IE7 has made for our users. As you know, we focused a lot on improving security in IE7. We believe IE 7 is the safest Microsoft browser released to date. According to a vulnerability report published today, IE7 has fewer vulnerabilities than previous versions of IE over the same time period. What's more, the report showed that IE7 had both fewer fixed and unfixed vulnerabilities in the first year than the other browsers we compared.

In addition to having fewer vulnerabilities, as we previously mentioned, IE 7's Phishing Filter stops more than 900,000 phishing attempts per week, stopping crimes-in-progress before users give up their personal information. On top of that, more sites are adopting Extended Validation Certificates as a way to help protect their users from fraud, and people are noticing. A recent USA Today article noted that "for the ultimate peace of mind, look for the address bar to turn green in IE7" in the context of securely connecting with your broker.