Using IE6 was "unsafe" 284 days last year even for users who patched their systems as soon as Microsoft released fixes. An analysis by the Washington Post's Stuart Krebs revealed that exploit code for critical unpatched flaws in IE6 was available for three-quarters of the time last year.
Even worse, for at least 98 days last year no patches were available for flaws that were been actively exploited by hackers to steal personal data. Firefox users, by comparison, were exposed to critical, unpatched flaws that were actively exploited for just nine days last year. This single period of exposure compares to multiple overlapping periods of vulnerability faced by IE6 users.
View: The full story
News source: The Reg
Even worse, for at least 98 days last year no patches were available for flaws that were been actively exploited by hackers to steal personal data. Firefox users, by comparison, were exposed to critical, unpatched flaws that were actively exploited for just nine days last year. This single period of exposure compares to multiple overlapping periods of vulnerability faced by IE6 users.
View: The full story News source: The Reg
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
The only logical way to call IE 6 "unsafe" is to say that it is man-made and therefore, subejct to human error. Ok, so in that case, any and all software is man-made and therefore "unsafe".
Not only that, but IE 7 has been distributed via. Windows Update so every IE user should be on the latest version by now.
You really have to wonder if IE's competitors are paying people to make up stuff to scare off IE users or if it's their own lack of intelligence that spilled out on the Internet.
C_Guy has never had a problem, so the facts that there were unpatched vulnerabilities and exploit code out there is suddenly irrelevant!
All that every home user needs to do is to upgrade to XP, if they use Win9x, or for corporations to ditch their 2000 workstations, and buy XP.
The world does not run on XP 100% of the time, so IE7 (which is a big improvement, from what I have heard) is not the be-all, end-all solution.
As far as "making stuff up", go ahead and browse through the history of advisories, when exploits were publicly released, and when patches were made available yourself.
As for me, I am inclined to believe that both browsers had problems, and that users were at risk during those times.
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
C_Guy, I fix PCs part-time, and 90% of the problems people have are caused by malware they got from IE. So maybe you're the exception, but for the average PC noob Firefox is the easiest solution to their security problems.
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
C_Guy, I fix PCs part-time, and 90% of the problems people have are caused by malware they got from IE. So maybe you're the exception, but for the average PC noob Firefox is the easiest solution to their security problems.
Using FF does not automatically make you immune from internet threats. Maybe not as much as IE but certainly it does not stop everything.
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
C_Guy, I fix PCs part-time, and 90% of the problems people have are caused by malware they got from IE. So maybe you're the exception, but for the average PC noob Firefox is the easiest solution to their security problems.
Firefox is definitely a good option. But the more people you tell that to, the more people that use it, the more market share it gets... the more people will try to exploit it.
So, Firefox is a great option because of its relatively low market saturation.
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
The only logical way to call IE 6 "unsafe" is to say that it is man-made and therefore, subejct to human error. Ok, so in that case, any and all software is man-made and therefore "unsafe".
Not only that, but IE 7 has been distributed via. Windows Update so every IE user should be on the latest version by now.
You really have to wonder if IE's competitors are paying people to make up stuff to scare off IE users or if it's their own lack of intelligence that spilled out on the Internet.
You're ignoring the fact that if you had been the victim of an unpatched vulnerability in IE, you might not be aware of it. Just because you think your system is uncompromised doesn't necessarily mean it's so. Some exploits might have exposed your personal data to a hacker without you knowing, or have allowed remote code execution that doesn't show up in your firewall or your anti-virus.
I, like countless others, have used IE 6 for years with... what's this?... *Zero* incidents. Yes, that's right. Zero. And did I have to do anything special? No.
C_Guy, I fix PCs part-time, and 90% of the problems people have are caused by malware they got from IE. So maybe you're the exception, but for the average PC noob Firefox is the easiest solution to their security problems.
Using FF does not automatically make you immune from internet threats. Maybe not as much as IE but certainly it does not stop everything.
True, using Firefox doesn't make a user immune to viruses and spyware, but it's a lot better at protecting people from their own stupidity on the Internet than IE is.
The WMF flaw was painfully easy to get into a user's system. In fact, malicious .wmf files were found being served up in ads on myspace.
To infect people on Neowin, all I would have had to do is to have put an infected .wmf in my sig.
"User trickery"? No.
Again, Firefox is a pretty good app. But let's not make it another monolith.
Ahh how fun it can be.
I really wonder why there are still so much clueless people that keep using it (or frontends built on it)
It seems stupid people never die out.
Last edited by franzon on 06 Jan 2007 - 10:10
The fact is, I never got a virus or any data stolen or anything because I used IE 6, so this really doesnt affect me. The fact it could have worries me a little, but not enough to want to change browser.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.