Firefox beating Internet Explorer in browser wars
The warnings come after Microsoft admitted their browser was used in the recent attack on Google by Chinese hackers. Microsoft’s director of security response Mike Reavey had this to say:
“Based upon our investigations, we have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and possibly other corporate networks,”
The attackers were able to gain access to Google’s internal computer systems and the nature of the attack has left Google threatening to withdraw their services from China completely.
The German government “recommends the temporary use of alternative browsers” with the government of Australia taking a similar approach, saying: “Microsoft has not solved the security glitch and Australians should use alternative browsers”.
CERT, the French government body tasked with protecting government computer systems were issued the following advice: “Pending a patch from the publisher, CERT recommends using an alternative browser.”
Microsoft are believed to be working on a patch and have urged that all Internet Explorer users should make sure they are using Internet Explorer 8 with the latest security updates, as versions 6 and 7 are vulnerable to attack. To make sure your version is up to date, visit the Microsoft Update Center.
The UK Government have stated that they won’t be issuing any warnings along the lines of the French, German and Australian announcements and have instead recommended that anyone concerned about online security should visit the Get Safe Online website.
However, with Microsoft only releasing temporary fixes to the problem (the next scheduled update is for second week of February), now might well be the time to consider changing to a different browser. Whilst all browsers could potentially be the victim of the attack, Internet Explorer is considered one of the least secure browsers and as such is targeted more than other browsers.
The chart below shows the most used web browsers in December 2009, with Firefox being Internet Explorer’s biggest challenger for market share.
To try an alternative browser out, try these links:
