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Enterprise-wide Browser Upgrades, IE, and Patching?

Posted by Cliff on from the between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place dept.

newkid asks: "Our company needs to upgrade its standard browser, a difficult decision when we factor security, compatibility and the logistics of actually doing it. For compatibility, Internet Explorer is required by internal applications like IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, so we have to keep it. On the security front, expert bulletins keep ranting every week about the latest gaping holes in IE but nobody really seems concerned: for example, many on-line banking services only work in IE, and they don't check for patches. Meanwhile, users do not care, as a large portion of the traffic still comes from IE 5.5, a version discontinued by Microsoft. As for logistics,the software distribution technology and the cost of patching both make the project much larger than we can undertake this year. Our two options are: roll-out IE without patching, or roll-out IE and Netscape, but lock IE so it can only surf on intranet sites, and update NS with rsync or Ant. What is your company doing? What is your strategy? How serious are the security threats? What are the documented security breach caused by IE? We need a reality check."

3 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. We have both. by zulux · · Score: 4, Interesting



    We've put Phoenix on the desktop, and quick launch bars.

    We hid explorer in the Programs->Accessories->System Tools.

    And of course, you get Konqouror and Phoenix when you log into our VNC server.

    But as far as risk is concerned:

    Lthe largest risk is Outlook and Outlook Express - they use the core of IE to do their mail previews. Most of our users don't visit odd websites - but they sure could be sent a virus now and then.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  2. Are you sure you *need* IE? by aoteoroa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You mentioned that tivoli's storage manager requires IE but a quick look at their product info page indicats that they support HP/UX,linux,Solaris and other clients and if that is the case then their web software must work with other web clients.

    I do all my banking, and the company's with Mozilla with no problems. A friend of mine also uses Moz for his banking. That's three separate banks that have no problem with Mozilla.

    There are probably more good choices in web browsers right now than there ever was. It is a good time for change.

  3. Re:Easy by J_DarkElf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, IE6 *is* an improvement over NS 4.x

    But then again, so is every other browser which does not lie about its CSS support, and can render standards-compliant pages.

    The main problem with IE is that it accepts garbage, so people keep using garbage, saying 'it works in IE'...