Facts on Internet Explorer, Firefox security

Yahoo!News reports that the computer security company Symantec released new facts measuring the security flaws in the browsers Internet Explorer and Firefox. Note the difference between vendor- and non-vendor-confirmed flaws:

In fact, when counting only vendor-confirmed bugs, Firefox appears to be significantly more vulnerable than IE over the last 18 months. During that period, the number of Firefox-admitted flaws easily topped 60. In the same period, IE posted fewer than half as many vendor-confirmed bugs.

But the new counting methodology, which Friedrichs said was the "more accurate" of the two, combines all vulnerabilities, including those made public but not necessarily confirmed by the vendor.In that count, IE comes out second-best: In the same six months, Firefox suffered from 17 total vulnerabilities, while IE had 24.

And the explanation for that difference?

Explaining the difference, Friedrichs said "In open source, more vulnerabilities will be acknowledged because of the transparency in development."