One in five workers still clinging to IE6
Widespread use of geriatric browser helps hackers
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
Microsoft's IE6 web browser remains widely used in the enterprise, despite its many performance and security problems.
One in five enterprise workers continue to use the nine-year-old web browser, even after the high-profile Operation Aurora attacks against organisations running the browser.
Last month, in response to a petition, the UK government said PCs in Whitehall will continue to run IE6 because rolling out IE8 would be difficult and could break web applications. US banking giant Chase, meanwhile, recently suggested even IE6 was better than either Chrome or Opera for online banking security.
A security report by net infrastructure firm Zscaler, published on Thursday, shows that a significant minority of private sector organisations are taking the same line as HMG, exposing themselves to a greater risk from security exploits as a result.
Zscaler's study also found that misconfigured web applications that allow SQL injections and unpatched WordPress sites are a popular target for hacking attacks, which often rely on planting malicious code on vulnerable sites so that visiting surfers become exposed to malware-based assaults. China was the second most frequent source of malicious sites, behind only the US, in the second quarter of 2010, up from fifth berth in Q1 2010.
Hackers frequently relocate malicious code to avoid detection, Zscaler adds.
Zscaler's latest State of the Web report can be found here (registration required) ®
COMMENTS
hardly clinging
More like 'lashed to'.
It's not like enterprise users get to choose their web browser, after all.
When?
Wil SOMEONE put a stake through this evil zombie's heart?
Do we need a silver bullet to kill it off?
Time will tell!
Maybe a mandatory service pack that renders it so slow that it can't be used (and puts up subliminal screens that say UPGRADE). We can only hope!
Damn IE6
Am currently pushing through an upgrade in our org to try to replace creaking IE6 with IE8 and Firefox. The amount of (l)user moaning about the upgrade is ridiculous ("My word doesn't work", "the colours are different, they hurt my eyes", "you've broke my machine, the internet keeps giving me warning alerts! Make them go away.") . You wouldn't think that a simple browser upgrade causes so much grief.

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