The article
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060210/tc_cmp/179102616 describes a browser test done by a researcher at the Univeristy of Washington.
Old,
vulnerable versions of both Firefox and IE were used to surf web pages to see how much spyware gets installed. The story claims that almost no spyware was installed on Firefox.
I would like to how many known security issues existed in each browser. If the version of Firefox had 1 known issue, and IE had 20, this study is very misleading. I suspect the IE version was far more vulnerable than the Firefox version was.
These results should be of little surprise as IE accounts for >80% of the browser market. The spyware installers are out to make money, so you will get a better return on your dollar by targetting the web browser used by most of the world.
I think the most important bit take take from this study is the quote at the end of the article:
If you browse, you're eventually going to get hit with a spyware attack.
It's worth noting: some attacks fail, some don't.
