For Your Own Safety, Stop Using Internet Explorer 6

Thursday, March 10, 2011 - 09:43 by Graham Miller

Almost ten years after it was first launched, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) still accounts for a worryingly high percentage of worldwide web browsing and so Microsoft is taking the initiative and launching a campaign to put an end to the reign of the software.

Internet Explorer 6 is used by a little over three per cent of UK web users, which may not sound like a lot but is three per cent too many for any browser which is close to a decade old.

IE6 has been around for so long that all of its security flaws have been well documented and exploited, which makes it very difficult to guarantee that a consumer will be able to carry out safe shopping online using the browser.

It has been outdated many times, with the current king of Microsoft's browsing crop represented by IE9.

The main issue which is allowing IE6 to be sustained is that people who use old computer hardware may not have the system requirements to run newer versions. This is forcing people to stick with their current browser or risk having no internet access whatsoever.

Based on statistics it looks like IE6 is more prevalent in developing nations including India and China, which means UK consumers are not being threatened to the same degree. However, what many people do not realise is that they are using IE6 at work because businesses have much longer upgrade cycles than consumers, with many still using the Windows 2000 platform which is not compatible with anything newer than IE7.

The risks associated with accessing e-commerce sites from work are heightened if this is the case, so stick to enjoying safe shopping online at home using an up to date version of Internet Explorer or an alternative like Firefox or Chrome.