Would you buy a house (or a browser) prone to break-ins?
Yesterday, we wrote about the China- Google debacle and McAfee’s announcement that they had pinpointed the attack vector used. It seemed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, specifically IE 6.0, was the point of ingress. While an official Microsoft blog reported IE 6.0 to be specifically vulnerable to the attack, they also stated that IE 7.0 and 8.0 could also be vulnerable, if not correctly an securely configured.
This last statement from Microsoft does not reflect good Geek Shui, at all. When a software company makes something new, they are supposed to plan security into the process and, above all, test it. We’re talking about a software that has been in production for, at least, the entire last decade. This being the case, any mistakes in the version 6.0 coding would surely have been identified in versions 7.0 or 8.0. If they haven’t, then we’re dealing with, as we alluded to yesterday, a really bad software development process.
It is obvious (or at least should be) that Microsoft is not too concerned about security. The statement that other versions should be okay does not provide a real assurance of anything. Is this where we call for a mass migration to Apple Mac or Ubuntu Linux? No, it is simply where we recommend that users find another browser. It isn’t because any browser is necessarily better than any other. It is, though, because other browsers are less targeted that Internet Explorer. FireFox, Safari, Flock, and countless others provide the same functionality and are often faster and less prone to locking up.
Look at it this way. If you are buying a house, do you look for the neighborhood with the most break-ins? No, you don’t. You actually want to buy the farthest away from it. So why should your computer use be any different. Pick the software (or in this case the browser) that works and provides a reasonable degree of security. In this case, the choice is obviously not Internet Explorer.
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So you say you’re a geek, who is technical and spiritual. How do you let the world (or at least the people who see your computer) know it? Well, here’s your chance. Download and apply this Geek Shui Living wallpaper. While anyone can appreciate the design and colors, only a real geek will be able to read the encrypted message it displays! Know someone else who might appreciate it? Send them a link via the Tweet This link or Share button at the bottom of the post!
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