IT Professionals

Dangers Of A Default Browser

Posted by on Dec 16, 2008 | 4 Comments

Right off the bat, this is not a swipe at IE7. The browser does its own PR work without any help from me. But considering this latest flaw, I find myself wondering – should we honestly be so reliant on any one default browser with any one OS? I ask this of Firefox with Ubuntu, Safari with OS X and yes, IE7 with Windows.

I cannot help but wonder if we might be better of in some way by providing a current security report in layman’s terms when user first clicks onto an “Internet” icon from their newly installed desktop. Clearly, even if I knew nothing about Internet exploits, I would want to know more about the potencial risks are for the browser I am about to put blind trust into!

What might be interesting is watching as alternative browsers such as Opera suddenly begin to be the chosen alternative due to the fact that it seems like it is less often you hear about exploits from that side of the browser fence. And if you think about it, it would help to further secure websites being more standards conscious as well, I suspect.

Perhaps I am all wet on this one? Maybe we should expect complete newbies to computing to realize that there are alternatives out there to the big three browsers? Maybe choice is just overrated? Hit the comments, let me know what you think about the idea of implementing a semi-fluid means of browser selection as part of a first run wizard on different platforms.

  • Jeff Schwarz

    I think that you would find that any browser that made it to the top of the heap as the most used browser, whether installed by default or added on, would attract the attention of the low life scum that cause these issues. MSIE is loaded on 70% of computers, and the issue is numbers. Would you attack the lowest one used?

  • Stephen

    I think that the effort of all the browser companies should colaberate a mass attack on the exploits and build one browser. There would be many more in the workforce able to secure the browser when the exploits pop up. Having one browser would also be easier for the lives of webdevelopers! and other 3rd party plugins such as flash and media plugins. This mass attack not only includes the big browser companies but also small developers for some of the brillient addons for firefox (noscript and adblock plus to name a few) This would make the internet a more secure and easier experiance for newcommers to get on the band wagon.

    This ofcourse will never happen but its just a thought!

  • http://www.baldguyweb.com/blog El Pelon

    No thanks, Stephen.

    Firefox doesn’t need Microsoft coders or code.

    If Firefox gets attacked, a fix will be out within hours. That’s why you don’t want to use IE. You might have to wait weeks.

  • tedjackson7

    I am willing to use any browser that gives me the ability to turn script execution off. I simply turn it back on when I hit sites that I trust.