Independent security firm NSS Labs published the report, which ranked the much-maligned IE ahead of every market competitor. The numbers broke down like this: IE blocked 83 percent of phishing attempts, while Firefox stopped 80 percent. Further behind were Opera at 54 percent, Google Chrome with 26 percent and in last place was Apple's Safari, which only blocked 2 percent.
Microsoft IE also beat out the competition when it came to updating phishing block lists. According to the study, IE 8 only needed 4.96 hours to block a suspected site, while Firefox lagged behind at 5.24 hours.
"Since phishing sites have an average lifespan of only 52 hours just over two days, it is essential that the site is discovered, validated, classified and added to the reputation system as quickly as possible," the report said. "A good reputation system must be both accurate and fast in order to realize high catch rates."
But here’s the problem: Microsoft sponsored the study, and some tech experts say that makes it suspect.
“The results are far from conclusive,” said analyst Steve Ragan of the Tech Herald. “There were only 492 sites tested in the first place, a rather small testing sample. In addition, the test relied on standard protections offered by the browser, depending on the browser used. No two will have the exact same set of default protections. In addition, the report itself is suspect as it is funded by Microsoft. Funding aside, the timing of the report and the breakdown of testing is something that one needs to take a long hard look at.”