By now you’ve seen or heard the headlines:

• GERMANY WARNS AGAINST USING INTERNET EXPLORER

– Seattle Post Intelligencer

• FRANCE JOINS GERMANY WARNING AGAINST INTERNET EXPLORER

– BBC News

• MICROSOFT’S BROWSER UNDER FIRE IN EUROPE

– Wall Street Journal

So what’s GOING ON?

And should you be AFRAID?

And should you STOP using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer?

Here’s what you need to know:

QUESTION #1:

WHAT HAPPENED?

You have surely heard that Google and 20 other major corporations were cyber-attacked by Chinese hackers.

These same hackers also attacked people globally who are fighting against Chinese human rights violations.

It now appears that these cyber-attacks exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6, and in particular on machines running Microsoft XP and Internet Explorer 6 or IE6.

And to close the loop…the code that enabled Google and the other companies to be hacked is now public, increasing the potential threat.

With all that in mind, France and Germany and many security experts worldwide think that it would be smart to stop using Internet Explorer.

QUESTION #2:

AM I OKAY IF I USE A LATER VERSION OF INTERNET EXPLORER, LIKE IE7 OR IE8?

Maybe. Maybe not.

The problem here is that security experts don’t agree.

Even Microsoft says (here) there’s a slim chance that the same vulnerability could affect users of later versions of Internet Explorer.

Our investigation so far has shown that Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not affected, and that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are vulnerable.

QUESTION #3:

SO, SHOULD I DUMP INTERNET EXPLORER?

Probably…

…but don’t do so blindly.

And here’s why I say that:

• In a day or two (or a week or two), Microsoft will release a patch that fixes THIS problem…

…so if you like Internet Explorer, at least stop using it until the patch is released.

(And I’ll let you know here at www.stebben.com when it becomes available for download.)

• But when you switch browsers, don’t assume that doing so automatically makes you safe…

…because ALL browsers have security holes and vulnerabilities.

QUESTION #4:

OKAY, WHICH BROWSER SHOULD I SWITCH TO?

Here’s my advice:

Try ALL the major competitors like:

• Firefox (www.firefox.com)
• Google’s Chrome (www.google.com/chrome)
• Apple’s Safari (www.apple.com/safari/)
• Opera (www.opera.com)

After all, you might find one that you like far better than all the rest…

…and you may never go back to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

QUESTION #5:

HOW COME THIS STUFF ALWAYS SEEMS TO HAPPEN TO WINDOWS USERS…

…BUT NOT MAC USERS?

There are many reasons, but here’s the main one:

Bad guys always attack the biggest targets…

…which makes Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer the most attractive platforms to attack, because by far they both have the greatest numbers of users.

That being said, as more and more people switch to Macs…

…it probably means that Apple computers will become more attractive targets and Mac owners will have more security problems, too.

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