Microcomputer Services

We Recommend You Limit Your Use of Microsoft's Internet Explorer

Background
Internet Explorer (IE) has become a target for spyware. Weakness in Microsoft's Active-X technology, support for Browser Helper Objects (BHO's), and the very fact that it's the dominant browser all contribute to the increasing number of attacks against IE. Microsoft has not been able to secure IE, despite incredible effort. Each time a vulnerability is plugged it seems that a new one comes along. Of the users who come to our helpdesk, virtually 100% of them using IE have PC's that are already infected with Spyware. The alarming thing is that these folks tend to find reoccurrence of spyware on their PC's weekly when they scan with Spybot or AdAware. Our helpdesk experience has been that folks who switch to any other web browser that is not IE based (Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Netscape etc.) do not see this reoccurrence of spyware. Switch away from IE, and you'll see that weekly reoccurring spyware doesn't have to be normal. Like many of you, our staff had long been using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) for web browsing. Avoiding the blue "E" icon is a hard habit to break. Just the same, we do recommend you make the switch. Our currently recommended browser is Firefox. Firefox is a lightweight (fast) browser taken from the Mozilla project.

Is Firefox Safe? No. All network programs have vulnerabilities, it's just a question of how many are known and are being exploited in the "wild." Exploits for Firefox do exist and new ones will in the future too. Our experience has been that Firefox is much safer than IE, and the open-source community updates it much more frequently than IE. Firefox doesn't support some of the technologies (Active-X, and BHO's) that are being attacked within IE. We feel Firefox is safer mostly from our direct experience at the helpdesk. We don't currently see folks using Firefox getting infected. More importantly, we see folks who change to Firefox avoid the cycle of infection so common with IE today. Regardless of what software you run, it's extremely important you keep it up to date. This is true both for Firefox and for IE should you choose to continue using IE.

Other Reasons to use Something Other Than IE: When one browser controls more than 90% of the market, it makes it possible for the company pushing that browser to create proprietary features that only work, or only work well with that browser. The standards that exist to define how web pages should be created exist to promote compatibility between multiple web browsers. This enables users to have a choice. It may also have the positive side-effect that visually impaired and others who rely on screen reading software will be better able to read a particular page.

Don't Try to Delete IE: IE is part of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and required for Windows Update. IE may also be required for some web sites. We simply recommend you limit your use of IE to those occasions that require it.

Do you have any external opinions that coincide with your advice to limit use of IE?

http://news.com.com/IE+flaw+puts+Windows+XP+SP2+at+risk/2100-1002_3-5868867.html?tag=nefd.top

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/report-200504.html
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040916.html
http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/29/cx_ah_0929tentech.html?partner=tentech_newsletter
http://www.creativetechwriter.com/archives/000318.htm
http://www.guninski.com/browsers.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5142439.html
http://digital-proof.org/
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/17/BrowserDream
http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay37.htm
http://browsehappy.com/
http://www.geocities.com/nomoremsie/why.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6746-2004Jun25.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3840101.stm
http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/20040615_why_you_should_dump_internet_explorer.phtml
http://secunia.com/search/?search=internet+explorer
https://scotty.infotex.com/article.php?story=20050117103801367
http://secunia.com/product/11/
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878
http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3374931
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117550,00.asp
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/cert_ditch_explorer/
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64065,00.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1617931,00.asp
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/switch.html

If you have questions about this advice please contact our Help Desk.