“The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security,” Daniel Emery reports for BBC News.
“The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems,” Emery reports.
“A spokesman for Microsoft told BBC News that developers for the firm were trying to fix the problem,” Emery reports. “However, this is no easy task. Not only have the firm got to fix the loophole, but they have to ensure it does not create another one and – equally importantly – works on all computers. This is a challenge compounded by the fact they have to fix three different versions of its browser.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, if you have a choice (i.e. no IT doofus standing over your shoulder dictating stupidity) and are still using Internet Explorer, STOP IMMEDIATELY! Go get yourself a real Web browser.
@ I’m a PC
I think you’re on something else….if you know what i mean.
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@I’m a PC
Do you work directly for M$ or are you a contract employee from India?
“The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security,”
Hopefully, one day the German government and others will recommend an alternative to Windows for the same and other reasons.
Thanks Mark S.
See my original post on MDN when the establishment of the German Government call center was made back in December.
I am livid that companies like M$ get away with shipping shoddy products that have such gaping holes that on one hand, an entire industry of malicious and destructive criminals has been establish; while on the other hand, an industry of parasitic anti-virus software houses has also been created to pry on the poor uninformed consumer who is almost indoctrinated by the M$ marketing slicks!
I know, I know, the fog factor on this sentence is way too high, but I am on a rant.
But, why am I, a MacUser since ’84 complaining?
Well because many institutions (banks, hospitals, airlines etc) and professionals (doctor, lawyers, accountant etc) reliy on these shoddy products and I end up paying for them through increased fares, fees and charges.
@ting
I recall those posts about the German government “helping” Microsoft back then. That isn’t what that was about, however. Rather, it was an attempt, to curb the spread of viri, etc.
The EU has been the only region, where Microsoft’s business practices have led to successful legal action. We are doing our part.
Furthermore, a large portion of our official IT system is already Linux-based.
As one 1984 128K Mac-user to another: Don’t fret, Europe will help out!
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@Mark s
wwbd: he’d pretend to know and then lord it over the others. He’d send baldric off on some scheme to ‘take control of NASA’ and in the end, baldric would sell him out for a turnip. And George (later to become House) would end up paying SlackBladder a heap of money.
As I’ve pointed out before, the use of IE in business enviroments often has little to do with the actual internet. We’re stuck on IE at work because at least two, maybe three or even more, critical applications require it to run. My place of work loves these kinds of applications, because they don’t require installation on each of the several thousand PCs in the company.
What I suggested at work once was that IE should be locked down so that it can’t be used to access any external sites, and then install Firefox for that purpose. The response I got was “Well, Firefox has it’s own security issues.” Whatever…
——RM
Hmm sometimes you have no choice to use IE. Fidelity for example doesn’t work on Safari or FF on macs. I can’t login to my 401K page using either browsers on the Mac. I have to switch to windows (in parallels) and connect using IE.
I don’t like this but have no choice if I want to check on my investments.
@MarkS
“But if we would call our little planet Terra, ” that’d make us ALL Terra-ists!
Why don’t you mention this to your investment companies? Aren’t you their customer? Do they not owe you something for that? Do they think you should have to operate down on their reduced level of security rather than they coming up to a modern, improved level of security?
Using IE for your investments or other financial transactions is like having your next door neighbor’s 12 y/o kid run down to the bank and deposit your paycheck for you each month, in a high crime neighborhood.
You either require a lot of faith or a lot of stupidity.
@Brulek and Mark S
Why bring Australians into it, it’s a BBC article. And I think you’ll find that the average Aussie (or Brit) scores much higher up on survey rankings of general knowledge, literacy and numeracy than the average American (40% of whom can’t place Canada on a map of the world).
(check out the news ticker at the bottom “Chicken disappointed with other side of the road”
Nobody actually says N A S A, they say Nasa. Though admittedly NASA is preferable to Nasa (because it’s invariably ‘NASA’ in the country of origin), many pronounceable acronyms are spelt in title or lower, rather than upper, case (e.g. Qantas, radar, laser, html, jpeg, scuba, etc.).
@silverhawk
you and farve suck dog cock
@enzos.
Well said
@Brulek
I would like to point out that if you are going to reflect on laziness, intellect and diss Australians to boot then at least use a capital A for Australians and a capital E for the English.
I assume you are using a mobile phone, as that would explain the amount of spelling mistakes.
@Mark S.
In regard to your “And to think these are the people that invented the English language cause me no end to an amusement.”
10/10 for grammar and syntax. Not.
As for NATO and NASA. The principal players in the British media have style guidelines which can be viewed online. It would seem quite obvious that the British press on the whole has an agenda to pursue the spellings Nato and Nasa. It would seem they are not so stupid.
According to Wiki – A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for design and writing of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication or organization.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/n
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/
I think that N.A.T.O. as the abbreviation / acronym was originally written which has since become NATO and will soon be Nato is in danger of becoming a noun if it hasn’t already.
Out of interest would you write SCUBA gear, LASER gun and RADAR tower or would you write scuba gear, laser gun or radar tower.
Yes I admit that the sentence –
” I think that N.A.T.O. as the abbreviation / acronym was originally written which has since become NATO and will soon be Nato is in danger of becoming a noun if it hasn’t already. “
does not flow and is poorly constructed … so
I think that N.A.T.O. as the abbreviation / acronym was originally written and which has subsequently morphed into NATO, will eventually become the noun Nato.
@Skylark
We’re not being paid for grammatical correctness, nor offering ourselves as a news service, thereby normal journalistic standards (almost an oxymoron nowadays) don’t apply. You don’t have to be able to play like <insert favorite sports person> to able to criticize them for their poor performance. So while such criticism may have marginal validity, it makes us feel better and, besides, somebody has to remind them of the requisite journalistic standards we expect.
And yes, you were right about your sentence. It was fairly poor. But who complained? Nobody. Why? See previous paragraph.
But since government is always eevil and always wrong, does this mean IE’s now THE browser of choice for German teabaggers? Or is that “Teebeuteler”?
@silverhawk…
yes… not so much Vikings… but ha ha cowgirls… crying about Vikes scoring another TD… there’s no crying in football…
yes the German gov’t should know better than stick to MS’s browsers… then again… can Google be trusted too?
I would think the Europeans would stick with a browser from their part of the world… Opera…
Let’s be realistic. This is a win for the PC versions of Firefox and possibly Chrome, not Safari.
Back to MS: When a GOVERNMENT says don’t use the product, holy crap!
Microsoft also tends to spread it hegemony by offering features that ONLY work with IE. For example, Public Folders in Exchange 2007. While iPhone does very well this this mail host, no FireFox, Opera, or Safari can get the public folders served by Exchange. As a consequence, we have to use Entourage that is bloody slow to pain a screen when syncing with Public Folders.
Just today, the French Government has also come out and agreed with the German Govts’s advice not to use IE.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8465038.stm
@Brulek
“somebody has to remind them of the requisite journalistic standards we expect.”
Like spelling and denigrating Australians.
If you step up to the plate and stick your foot in your mouth, be prepared for someone to knock you out of the park.
My point to you simply revolves around pots n’ kettles – glasshouses n’ stones.
–
Now on to wanker number plates.