[ISN] IE6 Browser Remains Attack Magnet

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 00:58:15 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225200720

By Mathew J. Schwartz
InformationWeek
June 1, 2010 

Want to improve your security profile? Start by eliminating any use of 
Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). The browser, now almost nine years old, lacks 
many of today's modern security features, and thus remains a magnet for 
online attackers.

But according to a new study, as of April 2010, more than one-quarter of 
all Web traffic still flowed to IE6 browsers. Still, that's an 
improvement over January 2010, when IE6 handled 34% of all traffic. 
Those findings come from a report released last week by Zscaler, a cloud 
security vendor.

There's hope: In the first four months of 2010, enterprises upgrading to 
IE8 jumped from 6% to 10%, "no doubt driven by high-profile zero-day 
attacks," according to the report.

Still, the fact that so many people continue to rely on IE6 represents a 
bigger security problem. "Whether employing black hat search engine 
optimization tactics, infecting legitimate sites or spreading fake 
antivirus software, [attackers] are repeating practiced and automated 
attack techniques that are succeeding with frightening efficiency," said 
Michael Sutton, Zscaler's vice president of security research, in a 
statement.

[...]


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Received on Tue Jun 01 2010 - 22:58:15 PDT

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