It’s been reported on the internet that a certain type cybercriminal prefers to use a Mozilla Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. The type of cybercriminal being talked about in the report is the type that develops and/or sells security exploits for websites.

The study that discovered this was conducted by Paul Royal, principal researcher at Purewire, a company that protects customers against malicious websites. His report found that 46 per cent of the exploit kit operators preferred the open-source browser to Internet Explorer.

“I think that’s probably because operators have a familiarity with the web threat landscape,” Royal told The Register, suggesting that many black-hat hackers take a security-through-obscurity approach to making sure they themselves don’t get hit. “It makes them wary of using mainstream browsers.”

The three-month study also found that a small percentage of them use Opera, again because it’s not the most widely used browser, a position that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer retains. Another unfortunate trapping of Microsoft’s success is that its Windows operating system is a strong attraction for virus writers, developers and distributors.

Windows has more than 90 per cent of the operating system market and malware pushers tend to ignore the other, less widely used operating systems, such as Linux and Mac OS. In response, Microsoft has had to be vigorous in its defence of its software, frequently releasing security updates and pursuing investigations against cybercriminals, even going as far as China in its efforts.

As a result of its efforts, Microsoft has managed to plug the gaps in its software, but at the same time the success of its software has inadvertently generated hordes of malware writers around the world. But its Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer browser are the two leading software packages in their respective markets.

So, although you may not want to go through the difficult and expensive work of changing your computer’s operating system, you may want to consider one simple measure against the cybercriminals – using a different browser, even if it’s for occasional use.

Firefox is only one of several browsers, all of which are free. You might to consider using Safari, which, though slightly more popular than Opera, is still not too popular to attract too much attention. And its features, too, may be familiar to you if you use any Apple products – one of this what they call “coverflow”, which is a highly visual way and enjoyable way to browse your bookmarks.

Some similar ideas are present in Opera. For instance, Safari’s “Top Sites” features, where it has a default page set up for you to place your favourite bookmarks and see them all at once as 12 small windows within the main browser page, is something Opera has had for a while. Although Apple has added some computational algorithm that updates these 12 pages according which you sites you visit most often.

Also, no doubt you will have heard of Google Chrome. It’s not available for Apple users yet, but that may be worth a try. It’s been around for a relatively short time, but it’s already got a 64-bit version, which, in theory is supposed to speed up performance. If you have Windows Vista, which is a 64-bit operating system, Google Chrome may be a good choice for you. You’ll have to wait, though, as the 64-bit Chrome is only available for Linux at the moment.

There are other browsers, such as Curl, BSD and, of course, Netscape. It’s not recommended that you try any of the browsers without thoroughly checking them out and considering what’s right for you. But using a different browser may well enhance your surfing experience, and installing and running one is not as difficult as it used to be – unless you’re on an old machine, of course, in which case, play safe and don’t stress the machine out with new software.

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