It seems it wasn’t only the Germans who thought it necessary to suggest the use of a browser alternative to IE – the French Certa agency ( which looks after cyber threats in France ) have now weighed in on the matter and suggested the same. And they’ve included all versions of IE in this statement.
Even Microsoft themselves are telling users not to browse with IE 6 and upgrade to IE 7 or 8 – the problem is these 2 versions have the same vulnerability as IE 6; and even though there is no exploit code for the later versions, it’s only a matter of time. There are a number of workarounds to prevent issues but it requires setting security in the browser to ‘high’ which basically cripples the browser to such an extent that you’ll be unlikely to browse anything on the internet in a normal proper fashion.
In addition, Microsoft’s inclusion of XP Mode in Windows 7 is just propagating the legacy platform and all it’s faults. It’s time for Microsoft to either step up and secure their apps or drop compatibility – because it’s killing the internet! SJVN says: “Windows has been, is now, and always will be insecure . It’s baked into its single-user, stand-alone computer design that was never designed to handle a networked universe with attackers always one network connection away.”
