BSI considers Firefox the most secure browser

The Firefox browser, according to the BSI report, meets all modern security requirements and surpasses Chrome, Edge and Internet Explorer in this regard. Firefox is by far the most secure browser.

This conclusion was reached by specialists of the German Federal Information Security Administration (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI), which tested Internet browsers using their own methods.

Mozilla development is the only one of four products that meets the new version of specifications developed by the state agency this year.

BSI experts tested Internet Explorer 11, Chrome 76, Firefox 68, and Edge 44 for compliance with guidelines for IT departments in German government agencies. They contain a number of browser security requirements and are designed to help system administrators choose software.

“The BSI normally uses this guide to advise government agencies and companies from the private sector on what browsers are safe to use”, — write ZDNet journalists.

BSI released the first version of its specifications in 2017, and an updated version appeared a month ago.

The recommendations of the German regulator, in particular, suggest the presence of the following functions in the browser:

• TLS and HSTS policy support
• the ability to disable data synchronization with a cloud profile;
• Isolation of open web pages at the process level
• single domain rule (SOP) support;
• storing passwords in encrypted form and access to them through a master password;
• validate security certificates for downloaded updates.

According to the analysis, it turned out that only Firefox meets each of more than three dozen of the requirements outlined in the document. Chrome failed the test in three ways. The Google browser, like Microsoft browsers, does not allow you to set a master password, as well as block the collection of telemetry data, and does not meet the requirements for organizational transparency. Edge and IE in addition to this do not support various profiles and program configurations.

Internet Explorer turned out to be the most unsafe of the four browsers, receiving an unsatisfactory rating of eight parameters.

Read also: Google Chrome, Firefox и Safari did not hurry to warn users about fishing

A few days ago, Firefox developers took another step to improve the security of their program, eliminating the possibility of running built-in scripts and commands on service pages. To do this, they needed to rewrite all handlers of similar events for 45 about: pages, as well as transfer all the built-in JavaScript code to packed files.