In Brief: German Government Says No to Internet Explorer

Last week, the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (known as the BSI) publicly recommended that all users of Internet Explorer switch to an alternative browser. This comes as a result of a number of critical security issues (including the recent Chinese cyberattack against Google) which have left IE vulnerable to attack.

According to the translated statement from the BSI:

Affected are the versions 6, 7 to 8 Internet Explorer on Windows systems XP, Vista and Windows 7 Microsoft has released a security advisory in which it discusses ways of minimizing risk and is already working on a patch to close the security gap. The BSI expects that this vulnerability will be used in a short time for attacks on the Internet.

Shortly after Germany’s warning, France echoed the announcement and also warned IE users to switch browsers.

Traditionally Microsoft releases security patches once per month, with the next release scheduled for February 9th.

Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Web_browser_usage_share.svg