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UK Gov't Says "No Evidence" IE Is Less Secure

Posted by timothy on from the maxwell-smart-elocution dept.

aliebrah writes "Lord Avebury tabled a parliamentary question in the UK regarding the security of Internet Explorer and whether the UK government would reconsider its use. He got an answer from the UK Home Office that's unlikely to please most Slashdot readers. The UK government contends that 'there is no evidence that moving from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure.'"

3 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Probably true, even. by toQDuj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's very likely true, as the stupidity of the user remains the weakest factor in security.

    --
    Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
  2. There IS no evidence! by guyminuslife · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The latest patched version of Internet Explorer fixed the bugs that Microsoft found. The latest patched version of other browsers fixed the bugs that other browser-manufacturers found. Ergo, there is no evidence that the latest patched version of Internet Explorer are less secure, since the officially "known" security features have been fixed.

    In fact, there's no evidence that there are any bugs at all in the latest patched versions of any software ever written, unless the manufacturers have explicitly stated that there are. In which case, in order for policymakers to accept such a report, they would need to prove that this is the case, by lobbying the government to the effect that their software is inferior.

    --
    I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
  3. Missing the point by sparky81 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The reason for this statement by the UK government is very simple - it has intranet and business systems in virtually every government department which work only with IE. They frequently ridiculously old versions at that - IE6 take a bow - giving the lie to the "latest, fully patched" comment anyway. There is no way that the UK government is going to incur the conversion costs for these systems at this moment given the state of its books at the moment. Stating that IE was insecure would create an inexorable pressure to do exactly that. This statement has nothing to with security, and everything to do with internal government politics.