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IE7's Christmas surprise
17-12-2008
by Ralph Averbuch
Hopefully, by now everyone will have seen recent reports about a nasty security flaw in Internet Explorer 7. Some estimates are that as many as 10,000 sites have already been infected with an exploit that attacks the IE7 vulnerability, thus potentially gaining access to passwords, etcetera. Scary stuff. Unfortunately it's one of those flaws that has been found and exploited before Microsoft had time to introduce a suitable patch. That's on the way to being solved with an automatic update planned to roll out within the next 24 hours. Just make sure automatic updates is switched on to get it. But there's no escaping the fact that each scare, however real or imagined, prompts yet more people to migrate to something other than a web dominated by Internet Explorer. Of course, this isn't to suggest that FireFox or Google's Chrome are somehow immune from flaws. They're not. But it's all about impressions and after years of apparently incessant security holes being discovered and plugged in IE, people's confidence can take a beating. Let's face it, with estimates that around 15% of all cash spent this Christmas will be via the web, who wants to take the chance they'll have their bank details whipped from under their noses as they buy their granny that comfy foot warmer?
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