France also warns against Internet Explorer use

Yesterday, the German government released a statement slamming the security of the Internet Explorer browser and telling all users to find an alternative.

Today, the French "Certa" government agency has followed suit, warning users against using versions 6,7, and 8 of the browser. "Pending a patch from the publisher, Certa recommends using an alternative browser," says the agency.

Microsoft, in the midst of a public relations disaster, has said that IE8 is the "most secure browser on the market" and users of older versions should upgrade. Cliff Evans, IE head of security and privacy said the "risk is minimal," and that to be affected a user must be using IE6 and visit "a compromised website."

Despite only admitting problems with IE6, security company Sophos says all Microsoft browsers are affcted: "Microsoft themselves admit there is a vulnerability, even in IE8," added Graham Cluley.

Internet Explorer, in 2003, had a 97 percent dominate market share position that has continuously declined to its current 65 percent range.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Jan 2010 19:28

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12 comments

fgamer

There's nothing wrong with IE8, but I'm using Mozilla Firefox : ) I occasionally use IE but for the most part it's Firefox for it's mass amounts of customizations and ease of use.

18.1.2010 23:06 #1

jony218

Internet explorer all versions are heavily compromised. It's safe to use if you are using it in a virtual environment and have a multi antispyware software running in the background.
It's not a browser that newbies should be using with there limited internet knowledge.
It's good the french and Germans have finally pointed out the obvious to the rest of the world.

18.1.2010 23:24 #2

Pop_Smith

I'm glad they are telling everyone to switch to an alternative browser. I've set up all my friends and family on both Firefox and Chrome, I then tell them "Play with them both and in ~six months (depending on Internet usage) I'll uninstall which one you don't like (or don't use)."

Most of them like Firefox better but I use Chrome on my machine.

When it comes it IE, as far as I know, Microsoft has nothing to lose in a decline because the countries are just saying "Don't use Internet Explorer" and not "Don't use Windows", which is where Microsoft makes their money.

18.1.2010 23:58 #3

tatsh

IE8 is full of problems in terms of providing what is considered by many of the 'tech community' to be a 'modern browsing' experience. Javascript works better on Firefox and Chrome. It is faster there too. There is no native JSON like in Firefox, so that is also slower. CSS is (as always) completely screwed up; even IE 8 needs fixes (but far fewer than IE7 and 6). The thing I cannot advocate is that Microsoft force Windows users to have IE 8. Some apps are (stupidly) hard-coded to rely upon IE 6 or 7's engine embedded, and IE 8 is therefore incompatible. Even the compatibility mode in IE 8 does not completely mimic IE 7, so it is not a replacement for testing.

This is the best you can do if you want to be nice and not rude:

<!--[if IE]>

<script type="text/javascript">

window.location="http://getfirefox.com";

</script>

<![endif]-->

or in PHP:

<?php

if (preg_match('/MSIE/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) {

  header("Location:http://www.getfirefox.com");

}

?>

This site has some real examples as to why IE (any version) is horrible: http://whyiesucks.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html (Splash screens are down unfortunately).

19.1.2010 07:40 #4

ivymike

"It's a conspiracy I tell you!"

Microsoft must've really pissed off the NWO somehow for all these countries to all come out and say this.

19.1.2010 08:12 #5

david94

i dont know why they even made IE. every version of the browser had problems as much as each version of the windows OS did and still microsoft "promise" that the next version will be better. still we are ignorant enough to use it and not move to a differet browser which is faster, easier and more secure. if you dont like IE or whatever tell me why are you using it again?

19.1.2010 08:15 #6

lxfactor

Originally posted by fgamer: There's nothing wrong with IE8, but I'm using Mozilla Firefox : ) I occasionally use IE but for the most part it's Firefox for it's mass amounts of customizations and ease of use.2 countrys says theres something wrong.. but i believe you.

19.1.2010 12:24 #7

Pop_Smith

Originally posted by tatsh: This is the best you can do if you want to be nice and not rude:

<!--[if IE]>

<script type="text/javascript">

window.location="http://getfirefox.com";

</script>

<![endif]-->

or in PHP:

<?php

if (preg_match('/MSIE/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) {

  header("Location:http://www.getfirefox.com");

}

?>

I don't mean for this to come across negatively but this is extremely misleading. Those that still use IE (IE6 especially) either are not very computer savvy or are forced to use it due to not having control over their computer because it really belongs to their work, school etc..

All this code would do is redirect someone that is using IE from your website to GetFirefox.com. This would confuse a lot of people and cause them to never visit your site again (or send you a bunch of emails asking why your site is going to GetFirefox.com).

I use a slightly modified version of IE6 Upgrade Warning on my website. However, if you are using jQuery the jReject plug-in is an excellent (and cleaner) alternative, you can read about it here.

19.1.2010 14:13 #8

bam431

Seems kinda nosey for the government to tell you what programs to run.

19.1.2010 19:47 #9

KillerBug

Originally posted by bam431: Seems kinda nosey for the government to tell you what programs to run.Yeah...and they keep telling people to quit smoking too...those bastards.

Firefox is a nice browser, but the creators are so full of themselves that it is held back. They refuse to implement basic features from Internet Explorer 4.0 because they say it would compromise security...BS...anything can be done securly. Without these features, Firefox is nothing more than a Lite browser.

19.1.2010 22:56 #10

tleewade

Quote:Originally posted by bam431: Seems kinda nosey for the government to tell you what programs to run.Yeah...and they keep telling people to quit smoking too...those bastards.

Firefox is a nice browser, but the creators are so full of themselves that it is held back. They refuse to implement basic features from Internet Explorer 4.0 because they say it would compromise security...BS...anything can be done securly. Without these features, Firefox is nothing more than a Lite browser.but a lite weight that does better than the heavy weight explorer.

20.1.2010 14:45 #11

KSib

Quote:Firefox is a nice browser, but the creators are so full of themselves that it is held back. They refuse to implement basic features from Internet Explorer 4.0 because they say it would compromise security...BS...anything can be done securly. Without these features, Firefox is nothing more than a Lite browser.What features do you need or what features are you talking about?

21.1.2010 19:45 #12

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