Outdated Browsers Leave Many Enterprises Vulnerable To Attack

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability-management/167901026/security/attacks-breaches/231602264/outdated-browsers-leave-many-enterprises-vulnerable-to-attack.html

By Robert Lemos
Contributing Editor
Dark Reading
Sep 27, 2011

Starting this month, a host of popular Web sites will warn users who are 
surfing the Web on outdated browsers. The effort, spearheaded by the 
Online Trust Alliance, aims to move the low-hanging fruit of 
easy-to-attack legacy browsers a little bit higher.

To protect against attacks, companies need to deploy a wide range of 
defensive strategies, and an efficient patching cycle is a good first 
step. Many companies fail to use up-to-date browsers for fear of 
breaking compatibility with a critical enterprise application. 
Currently, Internet Explorer 6 -- an easy target for attackers -- is 
still used by nearly 10 percent of Web visitors, a greater proportion of 
visitors than those who use the latest, most secure Microsoft browser, 
Internet Explorer 9, according to NetMarketShare.

"Clearly, businesses need to move off of IE 6 and IE7," says Craig 
Spiezle, president and executive director of the Online Trust Alliance. 
"And they need to move off as quickly as possible because the browser is 
the first line of defense."

The OTA initiative, dubbed "Why Your Browser Matters," aims to increase 
the visibility of out-of-date browsers in an attempt to get more people 
and organizations to upgrade to the latest, and ostensibly the most 
secure, versions.

[...]


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