A timeline of Web browser security

We’ve come a long way since Tim Berners-Lee introduced the first Web browser to the few people using the Internet in 1991. In our timeline of Web browser security below, we’ve compiled some of the biggest moments in browser and Web security history.

From the initial security-light start to the world of Web browsers with Nexus (originally, confusingly named WorldWideWeb) through today’s ongoing battles against Flash plug-in vulnerabilities, XSS exploits, malicious advertising, and the unencrypted Web, we can see the ongoing struggle for safe browsing, as Web development far outpaces the latest security innovations. Choices made by the earliest Web influencers still impact the security of its users decades later.

Curious about why it’s so hard to keep browsers secure? Read more in our browser security special feature.

Editor Seth Rosenblatt contributed to this report.