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Report: Outdated browsers put 637m users at risk

news.zdnet.co.uk — A group of researchers on Tuesday said 637 million web users are surfing with outdated internet browsers and are, therefore, at greater risk of web-based attacks.

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  • dtele, on 07/02/2008, -2/+37the 'If it ain't broke. don't fix it' mentality can lead to a false sense of security.
    • xxMarka, on 07/03/2008, -1/+2i don't understand why people digg comments like this down.
      how can you disagree
    • diablozx9, on 07/03/2008, -3/+0Its because people cant stand IE7
    • samuelcotterall, on 07/03/2008, -0/+5That's exactly it.

      Unfortunately, as a front-end developer, this means that I have to spend huge amounts of time trying to make websites look 'unbroke' in these ancient browsers.

      Kudos to PayPal for saying "Look guys, you need to upgrade to use this service" - unfortunately the browsers they refuse are pretty uncommon.
  • riverrunner, on 07/03/2008, -1/+19just checked one of my sites for june and over 200 people were using IE 5.5 or below (74 of them on IE 4 god help us all). although this amounts to 0.02 percent of visitors it is still 200 people who will see nothing but fine quality text on weird looking pages. Idiots.
    • CalcProgrammer1, on 07/03/2008, -4/+1I only use outdated browsers if I have to because of an outdated platform. Some of my really old computers still run Windows 95/98 and are stuck with IE5, since they're old Pentium machines, Firefox doesn't work too well, so I'm stuck with IE5. However, my new machines I keep updated with Firefox 3 (don't bother updating IE though, it's stupid and not worth using).
      • WiZZLa, on 07/03/2008, -1/+7You're part of the statistic if you still have an OUTDATED browser on your new machine. Remember, some programs use IE's rendering engine, keeping your system still at risk.
      • KingCritter, on 07/03/2008, -0/+10Install Linux on those old computers -- it'll breathe new life into them, believe me.
      • HigherLogic, on 07/03/2008, -1/+4Or install Opera on them. Opera does quite well on older machines with low CPU and RAM. Opera's minimum requirements:

        20 MB of free disk space
        Windows 95 (or later)
        64 MB of RAM
      • Hermmunster, on 07/03/2008, -0/+5You can install IE6 on Win98. With Win95 you are stuck with ie5.

        I agree with the guy above. You get a second life on those old machines by installing Linux and you get to use modern programs as well.
      • Fubarepublic, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0Slackware, Puppy Linux etc...
  • zaxnyd, on 07/03/2008, -1/+33As a developer, I dugg this for the title alone. Go update your effing browser.
    http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
  • lololol1, on 07/03/2008, -10/+5I'm still using Netscape Navigator.
    • zwaldowski, on 07/03/2008, -1/+15Digg must be really hard to use, posting comments via SQL injection and all.
    • Niightwitch, on 07/04/2008, -1/+1I used to like the look of Netscape back in the day...these days it's Firefox 3 all the way.
  • rasmasyean, on 07/03/2008, -16/+0That’s because all the Windows piraters don’t update their computers! LOL I remember when they said like 250 officially copies of Vista were sold in China and showed some makeshift Vista packages with broken English. HAHA It’s a wonder how MS still makes so much money!
  • Transporter2000, on 07/03/2008, -5/+9Mosaic works just fine thank you...
  • zyklon, on 07/03/2008, -1/+5Imagine all those people and how happy they'd be if they got Firefox 3, or maybe how happy Mozilla would be if all those people downloaded Firefox.
    • AtWorkSurfer, on 07/03/2008, -1/+5The people who never update their browsers would never appreciate all the cool things Firefox 3 could do for them. My mom still freaks out every time I go to visit, sit down to use her computer, and open up a new browser window (IE6, of course). She immediately assumes that I've discarded whatever e-mail she was in the process of composing - not understanding that you can have two web pages open at once. The concept of tabs would be utterly baffling to someone like my mom, who, God bless her, can't even understand bookmarks.
      • norbiu, on 07/04/2008, -0/+3Bookmarks? lmao, mine still thinks that turning off the monitor will shut down the whole computer.
  • kailash079, on 07/03/2008, -7/+3its just cuz my windows 95 doesn't support firefox
    • diablozx9, on 07/03/2008, -2/+5so, load Linux.
    • HigherLogic, on 07/03/2008, -0/+3...or Opera (9.x runs on Windows 95).
    • theaceoffire, on 07/03/2008, -1/+2A new computer with 512 Mb of Ram and a 1.5Ghz processor (And 80 GB of storage) can be bought for about $190 from Newegg.

      Dump that thing.
      • diablozx9, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2perfect for Ubuntu Linux
      • Fubarepublic, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0Look around in the trash bins behind office blocks mate. I could pick out a Pentium 3 with 2 HDD and 2 gigs of ram in an hour. You really don't think they recycle them do you?
    • WoollyMittens, on 07/04/2008, -0/+2Do people still honk aggressively when you drive that horse-drawn carriage down the road, you bought second-hand of an Amish person?
      • Fubarepublic, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0Actually it was what the horse left behind that got them riled. Being summer and open windows and all.
  • conversekid, on 07/03/2008, -4/+16I am having no trouble with AOL 3.0.
  • aserer511, on 07/03/2008, -6/+1If by at risk, you mean at risk of having a smell e-penis...
    :P
  • Tyr86, on 07/03/2008, -1/+5I'm sticking with Telnet.
  • transmothra, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1roffle!
  • elfguy, on 07/03/2008, -1/+1If you follow the thread on bugtraq, this study is somewhat inaccurate. As far as we can tell they take every IE5 and IE6 browser as unsecured, regardless if they are patched or not (Microsoft still supports them).
  • fydo, on 07/03/2008, -3/+2Aww, this article isn't about surfing. ;)
  • TheGreatBelow, on 07/03/2008, -3/+21In other news, at least 637m people are not using Firefox 3.

    Dumb *****.
    • exilepc, on 07/03/2008, -0/+3that just means the when Firefox 4 comes out we can all set a new record!!!
    • xsquirrel378x, on 07/03/2008, -1/+6Dont act like Firefox is the only browser alive. Cross platform browsers like Opera and Seamonkey are both excellent and K-Meleon on Windows is really good too, its lightning fast.
      • Zounas, on 07/04/2008, -0/+2I'd digg you bazillion times if I could. I myself prefer Opera.
  • briLo, on 07/03/2008, -4/+3I'll get it out of the way so we don't read it a thousand times.

    'Those of you not using __________ are fraggin idiots. You should be using ________.
    • theaceoffire, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Those of you not using ____cows___ are fragging idiots. You should be using _____corn____.
    • insanebrain, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1"Insert Firefox in empty spaces"
  • Kaiyu, on 07/03/2008, -1/+3My mom was using IE7 and I installed FF2 (later on FF3 when released), and she doesn't know how to use tabbed browsing, I showed her several times but whenever I go get a drink or something and peak at her screen she has like 10 or more windows open at the same time..not talking about bookmarking and other "high tech" stuff
    • insanebrain, on 07/03/2008, -0/+4I installed FF on my mom's laptop and now she laughs every time when she sees other people trying to read the webpage in between the ads.
      • WoollyMittens, on 07/04/2008, -1/+1My mom doesn't start a browser. She starts "the interwebs", which lives under the blue E. I've given up to be honest.
      • chaosblade77, on 07/05/2008, -0/+0I'm the only one in my family who uses anything other than IE... I have both Opera and Firefox.

        Every computer in the house has FF3 and IE7 on it (put FF3 on all of them on download day). My brother just refuses to use Firefox (or anything other than IE), my dad just never thinks to use Firefox (been on his computer since FF1.x) and uses IE out of habit, and my mom doesn't know the difference between the internet and a hard drive.
  • kamisama, on 07/03/2008, -1/+2How many of those have changed their user agent? Mine is currently set to identify as a google bot for instance.
    It's a fairly simple thing to do in Firefox. I'd even go as far as to say that of those IE's some are actually firefox but some people changed it because they think it may give better compatibility or gain them access to sites which were designed for IE.

    What I'm trying to say is, there's no way of ever knowing for certain. I'm willing to bet actually that of those that identify as IE some are actually Firefox. It's easy enough , you can even do it straight in the about:config section, IIRC. There's probably even an add-on for it.
    • voetsjoeba, on 07/04/2008, -3/+2Why would anyone in their right mind with the knowledge to fake their user agent be willfully using IE for any purpose other than testing sites on IE?
    • reformation, on 07/04/2008, -1/+3Its safe to say the number of people doing this is insignificant.
  • c010rb1indusa, on 07/03/2008, -3/+1I doubt any Diggers are rolling with an out of date browser. Doubt many have IE either. Firefox, Safari, and Camino all the way!
    • insanebrain, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2You use 3 browser at the same time ?
      • chaosblade77, on 07/05/2008, -0/+0It's not rare for me to have both Opera and Firefox running at the same time for whatever reason.
    • dood, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1I'd be pretty surprised if more than 30% of digg's users visit the site using Firefox.
  • JarJar420, on 07/03/2008, -5/+0Meesa recompiled Firefox so it now says Binksbrowser 3.0 lol :) Yousa webmasters must get a kick out of this :)
  • YAOMTC, on 07/04/2008, -0/+3I use both Firefox 3 and Opera 9. They are both very nice browsers, but I still prefer Firefox for its greater customizability. I must say, though, Opera's default theme looks much nicer than Firefox's.
  • kd1s, on 07/04/2008, -1/+2I currently use Firefox 2.0.0.15, and I keep all my add-on's updated etc. Matter of fact I think the reason why 92% of Firefox users are on the latest version is because of the automatic update feature of Firefox.

    I note that IE7 (well, I don't run IE7 because it's buggy but I did use it for a time) doesn't check for updates, instead it has to depend upon Windows Update to get patched.
    • nickTr, on 07/04/2008, -0/+3Why are you using old firefox? FF3 is so much better! Most of my addons updated automatically when I moved to FF3, no mess no hassle.
      • kd1s, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1The big thing that was stopping me is Sage hadn't yet been uploaded to work with FF3. I'm now happy to report that Version 1.4.2 of Sage is available and works beautifully with FF3.
    • redandwhite90, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0FYI: 2.0.0.15 isn't the latest version... version 3.0 is
      • chaosblade77, on 07/05/2008, -0/+0Firefox 2 is still supported and probably will be for a while (just like Firefox 1.5 was supported even after the 2.0 release).
  • Betrayer, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1are there really 1.583 Billion people using the internet?
    seems the RIAA and MPAA should be going after the company's that charge the 1.5 billion people 50 bucks a month for internet access.( instead of the person who cant afford to go see a movie because of his phone and internet bill)

    6.7 billion people in the world... thats 1 in 4 people have internet....
    the 637 million was 40% of those surveyed
  • WoollyMittens, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1Please please please please... Kill off Internet Explorer 6. As a web-developer I have to avoid or hack the hell out of anything to do with transparency or say... layout.

    PNG24 with an alpha channel has to be loaded with a kludgy proprietary filter that disallow background positioning and makes the link within unclickable. Position : fixed, doesn't work. Floating things that have a margin results in a doubled margin. Event handlers overwrite existing ones because it doesn;t like addEventListener. It's freaking horrible.

    Persistent use of ancient browsers is keeping web-design in the dark ages. DHTML can be a s flashy as... well flash. If only it didn't have to be backwards compatible.

    I keep hoping Microsoft will make IE7 at least a mandatory update. But they're preoccupied with denying such things to pirates, which accounts for a lot of IE6 users, whom hacked Windows XP and can never use Windows Update.

    As long as their own crummy Sharepoint works in Internet Explorer 6 Microsoft will do nothing. How sweet it would have been if their goddamn Silverlight had not worked in IE6. They would have been fast to act then, I bet.
  • bshock, on 07/04/2008, -0/+2The vast majority of people are surfing with an outdated browser: M$ Internet Explorer.
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