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Browsers

Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or maybe Microsoft Edge instead? The list of poten­tial browsers is a long one. But which one is the right one?

The most impor­tant points to remember:

  • There is no one right browser. Choose the one you like best, or already installed on your device.
  • The most impor­tant thing is to reg­u­larly update your browser. This is the only way to close any secu­rity gaps.
  • Internet Explorer you should no longer use.

Which browser is the right one?

This is not an easy ques­tion to answer. There are pros and con­tras to all browsers. And it is not really that impor­tant which one you choose in the end. Choose the one you like best, or already installed on your device.

You should no longer use Internet Explorer! Microsoft is ceasing any fur­ther devel­op­ment in favour of their new Microsoft Edge browser.

There fol­lows a list of rec­om­mended browsers most widely used in Switzer­land (listed in descending fre­quency of use). In addi­tion, their most impor­tant secu­rity and data pro­tec­tion char­ac­ter­is­tics are also listed.

The browser most widely used in Switzer­land and all over the world is Google Chrome. It is con­sid­ered extremely safe, since its archi­tec­ture makes it rather dif­fi­cult for crim­i­nals to attack the device it is installed on.

As far as data pro­tec­tion is con­cerned, Google Chrome does not score quite that well. For instance, Google Chrome trans­mits data about user surfing behav­iour to Google.

You can down­load Google Chrome here.

You can read up on how to delete your browser his­tory here.

Tip: Use the same browser on all your devices. You can then syn­chro­nise your set­tings, book­marks and favourites easily this way. But never store any pass­words in your browser!

Secu­rity settings

The same way there is no one right browser, there are no absolutely right secu­rity set­tings either. The most impor­tant thing is to reg­u­larly update your browser! This is the only way to close any secu­rity gaps.

Gen­eral rec­om­men­da­tions for your browser:

  • Acti­vate the auto­matic update feature.
  • Acti­vate the inte­grated phishing and mal­ware pro­tec­tion options.
  • Deac­ti­vate auto­matic storing of pass­words, and don’t store any pass­words in your browser. (Tip: Use a pass­word man­ager)
  • Do without the option to use active con­tent such as Java if you don’t really need this.

You should also note that pro­grams and apps which block ads or pro­tect user pri­vacy some­times result in severe con­flicts on cer­tain web­sites and with some e-banking solu­tions. Yet you don’t have to com­pletely do without these useful tools. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on this issue can be found here.

Browsers (as in “browse”) are spe­cial pro­grams and apps required to dis­play web­sites on the Internet.

Next to web­sites, browsers can also dis­play sev­eral other file types, such as pic­tures, videos and PDF documents.

Unless you are using spe­cific banking soft­ware, you will also need a browser for e-banking.

What else would you like to learn about security when e-banking?

Reg­ister for a course now
and learn more:

Basic course

Find out about cur­rent Internet threats and some easy pro­tec­tive mea­sures, and how to securely use e-banking.

fur­ther information

Online course mobile banking/payments

Find out about mobile banking, mobile pay­ments and how to securely use these apps.

fur­ther information

Online course for the under-30s

Learn how to use your smart­phone securely. Next to basics, we will show you what you should know about social media, clouds, mobile banking and mobile payments.

fur­ther information

Course for SMEs

Is your organ­i­sa­tion suf­fi­ciently secure? Learn which mea­sures you can take to sig­nif­i­cantly strengthen your organisation’s IT security.

fur­ther information