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Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 6:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: France is the latest nation to sail away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which is notorious for enabling full system compromise such as the one that recently targeted Google users
Germany has already recommended that people abandon Internet Explorer (this received some mainstream press coverage from the BBC) and France is doing the same. From the BBC:
=> has already recommended that people abandon Internet Explorer | ↺ some mainstream press coverage from the BBC | ↺ doing the same | ↺ the BBC
France has echoed calls by the German government for web users to find an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to protect security.Certa, a government agency that oversees cyber threats, warned against using all versions of the web browser.
The BBC did not let this message just be. One of our readers wrote to tell us that the BBC advertises new software from Microsoft. “The BBC is falling short,” he wrote. “The Microsofter, Cliff Evans, and the BBC are being misleading to the point where one could almost call it prevarication:” [quote from the above]
Microsoft told BBC News that IE8 was the “most secure browser on the market” and people should upgrade.Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy, said that so far the firm had only seen malicious code that targeted the older version of its browser, IE6.
“Even though MSIE 8 is just as vulnerable,” points out our reader. Here is the direct link:
=> ↺ MSIE 8 is just as vulnerable | ↺ direct link
Microsoft: upgrade to IE8, even though it’s vulnerableMicrosoft is advising its customers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 – even though the latest version of its browser is vulnerable to a serious security attack.The software giant issued a statement urging people to upgrade their browser, after the zero-day exploit that was used to attack companies such as Google went public.
There is also this one in the news:
=> ↺ this one
Internet Explorer vulnerable on Windows 7So it seems that an Internet Explorer zero day vulnerability allowed the back door to be opened that resulted in the hack attack on Google and many others that has received such publicity this week.
The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, who is typically very sympathetic towards the convicted monopolist, adds:
=> ↺ adds
This terrible piece of PR for Microsoft comes just as the IE browser which had almost total control of the market starts to come under pressure – not just from the open-source Mozilla Firefox, but from Google’s Chrome.
Regarding the BBC/Microsoft, our reader adds: “This is the same deception used with other vulnerabilities on the same application, other applications and even operating systems. This is costing businesses, governments and people lots of money. In borderline cases, this deception is costing people their livelihoods.”
“Exploit code for potent IE zero-day bug goes wild,” showed The Register (UK) on Friday, demonstrating that Microsoft is still negligent. There is more from The Inquirer, which is also a British publication.
=> ↺ showed The Register (UK) | Microsoft is still negligent | ↺ from The Inquirer
Watch this article from yesterday at The Register (the same issue was pointed out by others):
=> ↺ this article | ↺ by others
British government ignores MS browser fearsFrance and Germany have already told their citizens to avoid Microsoft’s Internet Explorer because of a critical hole in the browser, so what does the British government think?[...]Microsoft confirmed that the hole was used in the attacks against Google and 33 other companies believed to come from China.
The British government is deep in the pockets of Microsoft, as we pointed out numerous times before, e.g. [1, 2, 3].
“Dump Internet Explorer Now,” says this new headline from SJVN.
=> ↺ this new headline from SJVN
The latest attacks on Google have made it clear. Internet Explorer is a set of security holes masquerading as a Web browser. Get rid of it. Now.
Another person from IDG points out that “Microsoft Support Policies Guarantee Insecure Products” (Microsoft once said: “Our products just aren’t engineered for security”). From the article:
=> ↺ points out
I’ve written it many times before: Nobody is more generous with support lifecycles than Microsoft. Operating system security updates are provided for about 10 years. Are Linux or Mac OS versions from 10 years ago still being updated? The answer is no, and not for a long time.Combine this with a couple of side-policies of Microsoft’s: They don’t issue new browsers with OS service packs and they support the browser that comes with the operating system and the implication is that browsers also get supported for about 10 years. The technical term for this is “Nearly Unlimited Technical Support” or NUTS.And it’s not just browsers. Because Windows 2000 is still supported, so is Outlook Express 5.5 (possibly 5.01 as well, I can’t quite confirm it).
That’s not the key point however. When Microsoft is leasing licences to run binaries and charges extra each time these binaries evolve, then no wonder it must handle this support nightmare. Some people stay with older binaries in order to save money. Free software does not have these problems. █
Related posts:
Microsoft Flaws — Not Adobe Flaws — Responsible for China’s Attack on Google; Microsoft Takes China’s Side, as UsualChinese Google ‘Attack’ Involves Microsoft Windows Flaws
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