Symantec has changed how it spells out Firefox and Internet Explorer browser vulnerabilities in reaction to complaints last September from Mozilla Firefox users and developers.

“How we did it before wasn’t a fair comparison,” said Oliver Friedrichs, the senior manager of Symantec’s security response group. “It wasn’t an apples to apples comparison.”

Previously, Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report counted only vendor-confirmed bugs in the two browsers, which led to gripes from Firefox fans that the Internet Explorer tally was inaccurate, and too low.

In the newest report, which Symantec issued Tuesday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based security company has split the counts into two categories: vendor-confirmed and a combination of vendor- and non-vendor-confirmed flaws.

Symantec, said Friedrichs, won’t make claims that one of the two leading browsers is more secure than the other. “We just stick to the facts,” he said. “But the number of vulnerabilities are legitimate, so we can say that Firefox has fewer vulnerabilities.”

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