Well, the pile of bad news continues for Microsoft as a result of the cyber attacks on Google by the Chinese government. It originally broke that this happened as a result of a security flaw in the Internet Explorer browser, which Google tried to sweep under the rug because this showed that their employees were not using Chrome or Firefox (the two browsers that they have supported). Now the German government is recommending to web users worldwide not to use the Internet Explorer browser due to security concerns.

A representative from the security firm Sophos told BBC News “The way to exploit this flaw has now appeared on the internet, so it is quite possible that everyone is now going to have a go”. Microsoft is claiming that “These were not attacks against general users or consumers” and “There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning”. Unfortunately, despite Microsoft’s wish that this story would just disappear it does impact the general users when there is a guide showing how to exploit all recent versions of Internet Explorer (IE6, 7, and 8).

I don’t understand why anyone still uses Internet Explorer anyway, Firefox is far better with more plug-ins, functionality, and options while still consistently parsing JS faster than Internet Explorer can. My recommendation is that you take Germany’s advice and switch browsers, but unlike them I would recommend it permanently.

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