
German government urges public to stop using Internet Explorer - _ikke_
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/18/us-microsoft-browser-idUSBRE88G1CA20120918
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001sky
_The free security tool, which is known as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience
Toolkit, or EMET, is available through an advisory on Microsoft's website:
blogs.technet.com/b /msrc/_

the "Enhanced Mitigation Experience" = priceless

~~~
rbanffy
I thought EMET is something you write on a golem's forehead...

~~~
m_for_monkey
Yes, this is the _truth_.

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dpearson
Simply switching to another browser isn't a panacea; Chrome, Firefox, and
Opera all have the benefit (currently) of not commanding the same market share
as IE except for recently. If IE stays behind Chrome for a while (and if other
browsers' share keeps increasing), these other browsers will be targeted more,
as it would be more economically worthwhile. While they are an improvement
over IE in the security department, it will nevertheless be interesting to see
if malware authors can have success against Chrome, Firefox, and company.

~~~
alanh
Actually, there are now more Chrome users than IE users (depending on which
country you are dealing with). German users have been huge Firefox users since
2005. And the Webkit supergroup (add all the Safari, iOS, and Android browsers
to Chrome) means even more of the market than you might think are using
essentially “the same” browser engine.

(Quotes because, as PPK always reminds us, there is no monolithic WebKit in
actuality.)

 _Edit in reply:_ Hmm, “currently… except for recently.” Then let my comment
be in reply to “currently” and not “recently,” I suppose. Not sure if my
parent was edited after my reply, or if I was really that bad a reader.

~~~
dpearson
No, I'm just that bad of a writer. It wasn't edited, but was a complete mess
to begin with.

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madmaze
Page no longer available. here is it from google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.reu...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/18/us-
microsoft-browser-idUSBRE88G1CA20120918)

~~~
aneth4
The fact the article disappeared interests me more than its content. How does
Reuters go about deciding which articles to delete, as opposed to merely
retracting or modifying? Is this an excercise in journalistic integrity,
corporate bullying, ...?

~~~
s_henry_paulson
To be fair the headline and article is a bit over dramatic.

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DasIch
They do that every time such a bug occurs, hardly worth a news report.

~~~
philippK
Yeah well this has been all over the primetime news shows on german
television. They all aired with the warning to not use IE / switch to a
different browswr.

While this might not mean much to the average user of HN (read: tech literate)
- i think it IS quite a big deal for "ordinary" computer users.

I think such warnings, from an official government body no less, will be
heeded by many who don't know much and "just want to be safe"

Meanwhile MS choses to tell people that it "is not that bad" and that "not
many users will be affected" and no word on when a patch is coming. This
despite the fact that all current MS OSes (xp,vista,7) are exposed - is a PR
disaster for MS.

~~~
DasIch
Obviously MS is downplaying it but on the other side the BSI creates a huge
stir to create the image that it is useful in someway and to avoid becoming an
obscure agency that is mentioned only in passing in a couple of tech news
articles. That's not to say that what they are doing is bad it's just that
their are two sides and the ordinary computer user probably has still no idea
what's going on.

~~~
killerpopiller
the BSI isn't an obscure agency, it fills it's function well - e.g. ISO 27001
vs IT-Grundschutz certification, or newsletter with sec. warnings

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justincormack
Can you explain in more detail what it does?

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heja2009
The BSI is in the German media fairly regularly with advice about private and
commercial information security and has a good reputation.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Office_for_Information_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Office_for_Information_Security)

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jiggy2011
Does Windows 8 even give you a choice if you are on ARM?

~~~
ville
I thought it only did not allow other browsers to do JIT compiling, whereas
Apple is the one who does not allow competing browsers at all on ARM (iOS).

~~~
rbanffy
> it only did not allow other browsers to do JIT compiling

Effectively preventing competitors from building accepctable JavaScript-
enabled browsers. It's not that you can't make a winrt browser. It's that
it'll suck.

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sidcool
Till the bug is fixed. No sensation here. Move on.

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vevillas
Well, I was in Germany in 2010, working in a Govt office. Searching to get
authorized a different browser, i found that the govt recommended to avoid use
of ie.

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zeteo
Temporarily, pending a bug fix.

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kodisha
Yurop FTW [1]

[http://a3.ec-
images.myspacecdn.com/images02/118/08c0bd6f757b...](http://a3.ec-
images.myspacecdn.com/images02/118/08c0bd6f757b4efd94ed610c2c5bc992/l.jpg)

