Depending on how you count flaws..

[This was originally published on the OSVDB blog.]

After flap, Symantec adjusts browser bug count
Depending on how you count flaws, either IE or Firefox could be considered less secure
News Story by Robert McMillan

MARCH 07, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) – A report issued today by Symantec Corp. seeks to satisfy users of both Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox browser and Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer.

In its latest Internet Security Threat Report, covering the last six months of 2005, the company now features two different ways of counting browser bugs: one that finds that Internet Explorer has the most vulnerabilities, and a second that reveals Firefox as the bug leader.

Thank you Symantec, for generating completely useless vulnerability statistics. When you can manipulate them to support either side of an argument (and do so intentionally), what’s the point? Just define your criteria for counting a vulnerability, define your time frame, and let the results speak for themselves.