Privacy and Security Fanatic: Security Researchers: 'Did Google Pull a Fast One on Firefox and Safari Users?'

Social engineering comes in all flavors, from white hats pen testing enterprise security to plain old criminals -- who happen to play in the cyber world -- so cyber criminals who want you to click on a link for a drive-by-download, otherwise convince you to download malware, or who use phishing attacks to bait you into believing lies and inputting vital life, sensitive business, or financial information. It is that brand of lowlife conman and type of being maliciously tricked that makes cyber surfing potentially unsafe. All of the major web browsers have some sort of protection built in. Google's Safe Browsing API is used by Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Microsoft uses Application Reputation. Google recently updated its Safe Browsing mechanism and then released Chrome Beta to improve "speed and security." But in regard to the Safe Browsing API, NSS Labs, an independent security research and testing firm, published a new report, "Did Google Pull a Fast One on Firefox and Safari Users?"

NSS Labs analysis states, "At the end of 2011, Chrome's protection rate steadily climbed to just over 50% before suddenly falling back to 20%. At the same time, Firefox and Safari's block rate moved in the opposite direction. Chrome, Firefox and Safari all use Google's Safe Browsing API, and Google has publicly stated that it has not withheld data from their Safe Browsing feed. So what should end users make of the results?"