The best browser that has no way to get spyware/malware

[devenh]

I've used OpenDNS.com for some time with good results to protect my system.

 

[MasterOfGoingFaster]

I don't normally use a virtual machine for browsing, but I do when I'm accessing the web for financial purposes (viewing bank statements, credit card purchases, etc.).

If I'm reading this right, you might have a surprise in store. If you don't use a VM for regular browsing and get compromised, the attacker could see what you are doing in the VM. He could see your keystrokes, etc. before to go into the VM. So using the VM just for banking isn't doing much for you.

My ideal secure web browser would be a LiveCD Linux distro

Bingo! That is the best way. In fact, its the only way you want to do online banking.

--
Ken Elliott
Equipment in profile.

 

[Sean Nelson]

I don't normally use a virtual machine for browsing, but I do when I'm accessing the web for financial purposes (viewing bank statements, credit card purchases, etc.).

If I'm reading this right, you might have a surprise in store. If you don't use a VM for regular browsing and get compromised, the attacker could see what you are doing in the VM. He could see your keystrokes, etc. before to go into the VM. So using the VM just for banking isn't doing much for you.

If you had bothered to read the entire paragraph then you'd have seen that I acknowledged that possibility:

I'm a believer in this concept. I don't normally use a virtual machine for browsing, but I do when I'm accessing the web for financial purposes (viewing bank statements, credit card purchases, etc.). By resetting the VHD file to a template after every use I'm assured that no virus can gain a foothold. It's not foolproof (ultimately there still has to be a "real" host system at the top of the virtualization stack which is still vulnerable to things like keystroke logging or network packet interception), but it's another layer that makes me a harder target for things like identity theft.

In fact, you're still vulnerable to viruses at the "real" OS level even if you don't use it for browsing. Browsers are not the only way that malware can get onto your system, there are also worms which can infect your computer by exploiting vulnerabilities in the network protocol stack, among other things. These sorts of vulnerabilities get discovered and patched on a regular basis. Firewalls help, but unless you block everything (in which case why connect to the Internet at all) there's always a risk.

My ideal secure web browser would be a LiveCD Linux distro

Bingo! That is the best way. In fact, its the only way you want to do online banking.

...and even this is vulnerable to a worm that can penetrate the system and install itself into RAM "on the fly" without requiring a reboot. Nothing's completely foolproof. But as I said above, each level of safeguard you put in place shaves off another set of attacks that you'd otherwise be susceptible to. It's a question of how far you you're willing to go to address various levels of threat.

I'm a lot less concerned about the security of online banking than I am about online retailers. I have no control over the security of their systems and given some of the names of companies that have been hacked it's obvious that size and reputation are no assurance of good practices. For that reason I pretty much avoid online purchases except where I don't really have a lot of choice.

 

[M Mason]

It sounds to me like the OP has some kind of Trojan, Rootkit, or other malware that is inviting the re-infestations in. Before you can be protected with a software/browser strategy, you first need to remove all the virus, etc.

My girlfriend's Mom's computer was severely infested. Two young neices surf the web all the time (click on everything, like kids). I joined the forum at bleepingcomputer and the experts there solved her problems after a whole bunch of scans:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/index.php

Good Luck !!

Mark