You know that it’s a major problem when some of the biggest news outlets are running the story and when some of the best known security firms are advising against running IE until a fix is issued.
So why are you still running Internet Explorer?
Here are some of the main reasons NOT to use IE:
- It’s full of security holes – being integrated with the OS is a Bad Idea. There’s too much complexity in deciding whether a file operation should be allowed or not. Is the browser running as a file explorer or as a “normal” browser?
- It’s terrible at web standards – ask anyone who has to design a website and they’ll tell you about the recurring nightmares they have about getting sites to work in IE.
- It’s slow – rendering pages takes forever, especially if a site incorporates JavaScript.
- Updates aren’t provided in a timely manner. One of the reasons that the latest security scare has become so big, is that Microsoft only release patches once a month. That gives malware writers a full months head-start before a patch may be released.
So if security and privacy are important to you, then switch to another browser. There’s quite a few out there, available for free, and much better than Internet Explorer.
EDIT: For those of you that didn’t, or won’t, take my advice, here’s the patch to fix the latest security problem with IE. One more word of advice: Get used to patching IE, this is not going to be the last security issue you’ll have to deal with.
