France joins Germany in war against IE

Posted on 18 Jan 2010 at 15:42

The French government has echoed calls from Germany for users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer amid security concerns.

CERTA, which oversees cyber threats in France, recommends that users ditch all versions of Internet Explorer in favour of using an alternative browser until a patch from Microsoft has been released.

The agency also "strongly advises" users to log in to their computers with a 'limited rights' user account while browsing the Internet while also disabling dynamic code extensions such as JavaScript and ActiveX.

In response to the news, Microsoft remained bullish, arguing that Internet Explorer 8 was "the most secure browser on the market" and that the risks posed were "minimal" because the software giant had only seen malicious code targeting Internet Explorer 6. Most business networks still run IE6 and give users no provisions for installing third party browsers - never mind upgrading to the latest version of IE.

Security experts argue that switching away from Internet Explorer will not fix the problem because all browsers have security flaws. It could also create problems for companies because some web applications are only designed to work optimally in Internet Explorer.

This brings us back to that age old problem of standards. For years, Microsoft has chosen not to adhere to web standards and even the latest version of Internet Explorer is a country mile away from standards compliancy after scoring just 20/100 in the popular Acid3 test. Internet Explorer's competitors score well above 80/100 in the test.

Author: Tim Smalley

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