France Tells Its Citizens To Abandon IE, Others Disagree

Freistoss writes "Microsoft still has not released a patch for a major zero-day flaw in IE6 that was used by Chinese hackers to attack Google. After sample code was posted on a website, calls began for Microsoft to release an out-of-cycle patch. Now, France has joined Germany in recommending its citizens abandon IE altogether, rather than waiting for a patch. Microsoft still insists IE8 is the 'most secure browser on the market' and that they believe IE6 is the only browser susceptible to the flaw. However, security researchers warned that could soon change, and recommended considering alternative browsers as well." PCWorld seems to be taking the opposite stance arguing that blaming IE for attacks is a dangerous approach that could cause a false sense of security.

Comments

Mixed Message

[Bob9113]

Don't Kill the Messenger: Blaming IE for Attacks is Dangerous

Don't obfuscate the message. Blaming IE for being susceptible to attacks is entirely valid.

So is blaming Mozilla, Chrome, Opera, Konquerer, and Safari when they are vulnerable.

It's all nice and tidy to say "The attackers are to blame." But we don't have control over them. We do have control over which software we use. And if we continually abandon less secure software for more secure alternatives, we will have a continually improving software ecosystem. That will not always mean abandoning IE (well, it may not always mean abandoning IE -- seriously, someday IE might be the most secure option -- stop laughing, it could happen, hypothetically), but it does mean always abandoning whoever fucked up most egregiously most recently. Feedback works.

Re:Importance of Competitive Choices

[sznupi]

Ah, yes, because Opera wouldn't have any market share otherwise.

Never mind that it's the number one browser in Ukraine, number one alternative to IE in Russia (and look like it will be number one overall in a few months), and in my backyard that I know about (post-Soviet EU memberstates) it is usually #3 browser hovering between 5 and 10%. Heck, in quite a few of them Opera Mini (the j2me one) is ahead of Safari...