January 22, 2010 by James Oliver
The French government have joined their German counterparts in recommending that citizens don’t use Internet Explorer. The government issued a statement today, two days after Germany, warning French people to avoid all versions of the browser, both statements appear to have been prompted by the online posting of the malicious code implicated in the recent attacks on Google, to which IE6 is thought to be particularly vulnerable.
Incensed that the French have failed to make the distinction between IE6 and the new version IE8, Microsoft has released a statement calling IE8, “the most secure browser on the market”, and advising people who are still using IE6 to upgrade.
They even went as far as to describe the risk to web users as “minimal,” making the point that in order to be affected, the web user would have to be using IE6 and visit a compromised site, of which they claim there are very few.
The French and German governments obviously disagree, recommending that all citizens switch to rival browsers like Chrome or Firefox. However, security analysts are advising users of these rival browsers not to get complacent, making the point that whilst switching browsers will avoid this particular threat, all browsers have vulnerabilities and it’s impossible to be completely safe.
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