Two Hundred Eighty Four

O2BIE.

Get It Try It

Two hundred eighty four: that's the number of days last year IE 6 users were left out in the cold with major attack vectors bearing down on them.

Last year IE 6 users represented 80% of the web surfers on the planet. That means that four out of five web surfers are fucking idiots.

Brian Krebs has assembled one of his excellent reports again. It's called 'Internet Explorer Unsafe for 284 Days in 2006' mostly because it's true: IE was unsafe for two hundred eighty four days last year.

Two hundred eighty four days: that's over nine fucking months. Over three quarters of a year. This is software from the premier company on the planet. You really believe in them, don't you, you lamer IE users?

Two hundred eighty four days: and this isn't something Brian made up either. No: Brian checks his facts before publishing. Always. He lets Microsoft check them.

'Several weeks prior to posting this information, I shared the data I had gathered with Microsoft. The officials I dealt with helpfully concurred or quibbled slightly with some of my findings, but the company raised no objections that would materially affect the results presented in this particular study of IE flaws. In fact, if you examine the links included in the chart that accompanies this post, you can see how the data is supported by information posted on the web over the past year.'

So even Microsoft agree: two hundred eighty four days. Ahem.

For a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year) exploit code for known, unpatched critical flaws in pre-IE7 versions of the browser was publicly available on the Internet.

'Likewise, there were at least 98 days last year in which no software fixes from Microsoft were available to fix IE flaws that criminals were actively using to steal personal and financial data from users.'

Wow. It's almost like this is a serious matter!

In a total of ten cases last year, instructions detailing how to leverage 'critical' vulnerabilities in IE were published online before Microsoft had a patch to fix them.

Yup! It's serious all right! Serious!

In contrast, Internet Explorer's closest competitor in terms of market share - Mozilla's Firefox browser - experienced a single period lasting just nine days last year in which exploit code for a serious security hole was posted online before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.

Oh. How did they do that? They don't even have any money, do they? What are they - TWO PROGRAMMERS?

HOW CAN THEY BEAT THE COLOSSUS OF REDMOND IN THE QUALITY GAME?

A word to all Linux users: stay where you are. And thank you for being caring and intelligent.

A word to all OS X users: don't worry so much. Nothing like Windows is ever going to happen to you.

And finally a word to Windows users, in particular that curious demographic who not only use Windows but also use IE - and especially Outlook:

WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING STUPID?