A security adviser for Infoworld by the name of Wayne Rash, has joined the growing chorus of security people and companies that are recommending people stop using Internet Explorer for their general web browsing.
Wayne has a slightly different take on it. He says that you’ll change to Mozilla because of security, and stay with it because it’s faster and better then Internet Explorer. That’s something I’ve been saying for some time now, but its nice to hear others in the industry coming to the same conclusion.
One thing that has always amazed me, is that if the number of PC’s I have fixed that have been crammed with spyware like Hotbar and other such apps are any indication, people are willing to load nearly any flashy looking app onto their computers, be they trusted apps or not. And yet it requires nearly every security expert on the planet to advise finding an alternative to IE before people start considering it.
It is slowly happening though, HTMLfixIts stats indicate that over 27% of our visitors are now using either Firefox or Mozilla for their general browsing, and other tech sites are also reporting significant increases in Mozilla/Firefox usage. (Though non tech sites are reporting that the change has been much less significant then we have found.)
In a month or two, we will have a much better idea of how many have actually upgraded their browser. Tech people usually make sure their friends and colleagues and clients upgrade as well. (I certainly do.)
For those of you wanting more overall information on this issue, this article by the Seattle Times, is a very well written overview.
Regards
Franki
