In a new report from NSS Labs regarding malware on social networks some really great information has come to light..

Windows Internet Explorer 9 (beta) caught an exceptional 99% of the live threats, leading the non-IE pack by 80%. IE9's protection includes SmartScreen URL filtering, which is included in IE8 as well as SmartScreen application reputation, which is new to IE9.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 caught 90% of the live threats, an exceptional score which was a 5% improvement from the Q1 2010 test and built upon prior improvements from the Q3 2009 and Q1 2009 tests.

IE8 showed a 71% lead over the next best browser.

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 caught 19% of the live threats, far fewer than Internet Explorer 8 or Internet Explorer 9. This is a 10% decrease in protection from the Q1 2010 test.
Apple Safari 5 caught 11% of the live threats. Overall protection declined 18% from Q1 2010.

Google Chrome 6 caught 3% of the live threats, down 14% from the Q1 2010 test.
Opera 10 caught 0% of the live threats, providing virtually no protection against socially-engineered malware..

What is a socially engineered malware threat ?

According to the report:

“For clarity, the following definition is used for a socially-engineered malware URL: a web page link that directly leads to a download that delivers a malicious payload whose content type would lead to execution, or more generally a website known to host malware links. These downloads appear to be safe, like those for a screen saver application, video codec upgrade, etc., and are designed to fool the user into taking action. Security professionals also refer to these threats as “consensual” or “dangerous” downloads.

You can read more at:

http://www.nsslabs.com/assets/noreg-reports/NSS%20Labs_Q32010_Browser-SEM.pdf