Thursday, February 10, 2005

Should You Stop Using Internet Explorer?

When ever I go to an IT related event (which is quite frequently), it almost never fails that before the event is over with, I have someone arguing with me that the only way to secure your computer is to get rid of Internet Explorer and use a different Web browser (if not a completely different operating system) instead.

I certainly mean no disrespect to the people who prefer alternate browsers, but I wanted to put in my two cents worth on this issue. I fully admit that Internet Explorer is very prone to security breaches.

Microsoft is constantly releasing new security patches, but even so, Internet Explorer still seems to be extremely prone to spyware infections. Is this enough to warrant giving IE the boot though?

I don’t think so. If you prefer an alternate browser, that’s fine. I’m not going to try to convince you to give up your browser of choice in favor of Internet Explorer. At the same time though, I also believe that it is possible to make Internet Explorer secure enough that you don’t have to worry about switching to another browser. Read more...