With one third of internet users in Asia-Pacific alone becoming victims of threats like malware, the need for online security is more relevant than ever. To address these online concerns, Microsoft created their latest browser Internet Explorer 9, which provides a safe, secure yet beautiful and speedy browsing experience. Today, NSS Labs released two reports which show that SmartScreen feature in Internet Explorer continues to offer industry leading protection against socially engineered malware. As per the report “Internet Explorer 9 blocks an exceptional 99% malware. 96% of the live threats were caught with SmartScreen URL reputation in IE9, and an additional 3.2% with Application Reputation.”

What’s more, since the October 2010 NSS report, the average time taken by SmartScreen filter to block a threat has gotten 28% faster, if Application Reputation is considered, then the average time has improved by 85%. The graph below compares the test results from various browsers and shows that Internet Explorer blocks 5X more malware than competitive browsers.

The other reports looked at socially engineered malware targeted towards people living in Asia Pacific region and in Europe. As you can see below, in each region the results remained consistent – Internet Explorer 9 maintains a lead in protecting users from live threats.

Check out the entire web browser security report by NSS Labs.

It is no surprise that a browser is the first line of defense against attacks from the web and it plays an important role to help keep you safe online. Internet Explorer is designed with your security and privacy in mind. The new browser has a robust set of built-in security, privacy, and reliability technologies that helps keep consumers safe and their browsing experience virtually uninterrupted. With IE9, we have introduced new functionalities like Tracking Protection, Tracking Protection Lists, ActiveX Filtering to name a few. IE9 makes browsing the web even safer & protected experience from here on.

IE9 has received positive feedback from consumers globally. As of today, Internet Explorer 9 has over 18% usage share worldwide on Windows 7. You can download Internet Explorer 9 to see how you can enjoy a more beautiful – and trusted web!