Stop Using Internet Explorer! – Microsoft’s Own Security Chief Warns
(The AEGIS Alliance) – Microsoft’s own Security Chief gave a warning to millions of users who still use Internet Explorer (IE) as their default web browser, saying they are putting themselves in peril.
Internet Explorer was first developed by the company in 1995. Microsoft does not support new developments for the web browser anymore. Continuing to use the software is a potential risk, according to Microsoft’s worldwide lead for cyber security, Chris Jackson.
The outdated Internet browser IE has increasingly lost favor for both developers and users because of rising alternatives such as Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome. These two browsers have grabbed an ever increasing share of the web browser market.
IE was overtaken by Google Chrome in 2016 as the world’s most popular web browser.
Microsoft has been searching for new business ventures in its goals for a reinventing of itself and to rival its competitors in Silicon Valley. Back in November, Microsoft had briefly overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly listed company because of investors being more confident in its cloud computing goals.
“We’re not supporting new web standards for it and, while many sites work fine, developers by and large just aren’t testing for Internet Explorer these days,” Chris Jackson stated.
In recent years, Microsoft has been encouraging its users to adopt the Microsoft Edge web browser, which is more modern, and was released back in 2015.
Mr. Jackson gave a warning in a blog post that companies still using IE are taking on a “technical debt” with paying for support on old software on could find themselves using “a 1999 implementation of web standards” if they don’t take all of the needed measure to update it while they create new web pages.
Even though numerous websites do work on IE currently, new apps are not going to be able to integrate into the service, which will limit available web application.
Some firms have opted for continuing to use IE because their websites depend on its underlying infrastructure.
“We want you to use IE for the sites that need it – what I’m trying to say here is that I hope you don’t use it for everything else,” Chris Jackson mentioned in a comment on the blog post.
Microsoft is going to end support for IE 10 during January of 2020. Meanwhile IE 11 will still remain as the final iteration of the web browsing software.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
