Internet Explorer (IE MSIE)
This program, also known as IE and MSIE has the biggest share in the world of browsers. Since Windows 95 the browser was shipped with windows as the default browser the marketshare rose quite rapid. The real boom came after Microsoft implemented it's browser into Windows 98 and the browser became an essential part of the operating system, via this strategy the share grew from about 57% to around 84% in 2005.
Now, with the bulk of the surfers using IE advertisers and hackers could concntrate on finding flaws and exploits in IE, because most surfers use this program, why find out flaws in browsers which have a share of 10%? Here, the same math is applied as to why there are a lot of viruses for the pc and virtually none for the mac. Enough about the history of IE, let's take a look at the security.
Since the introduction IE, security holes were found, patch, more were found and some more were patched. As of June 2005, I have no recent information, over 20 serious holes were reported, some of which are no newly discovered ones but were present for months or years. These holes pose the biggest threat to your online safety and privacy since the creating of a patch/bugfix takes weeks or even months in some cases, leaving you and your system open to the outside world. To download the latest patches click here
Apart from the security holes which can be exploited, certain functions in IE pose serious threats to your safety, namely:
Pro's
- All pages load correct (about 99/100)
Con's
- Leaks, bugs and exploits...
- Applets and scripts are loaded immediatly
- Lot's of toolbars containing spyware/adware are available
- IE doesn't use the webstandards, so pages which might show up in IE don't have to display correct on other browsers
To ensure safe surfing you can change browser. You cannot uninstall Internet Explorer since it can damage your windows installation and you require IE for Windows Update (the automatic update function of windows xp will only download critical updates). Another option is to modify your safety settings and to keep a few basic rules in mind when surfing the web.
Note: to read a list of found, and patched, security holes go here