French Government Advises Users To Stop Using Internet Explorer

MUMBAI / BANGALORE, India – January 18, 2010 – IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, has today commented on the French Government's advice to its citizens to stop using Internet Explorer until critical security vulnerability in the browser is resolved. France's move follows this weekend's recommendations from the German government to do the same, after the unpatched security hole was blamed for the attack announced last week against Google and other companies.

"It looks like governments in Europe might be falling over themselves to advise the public and official departments to stop using the world's most popular internet browser until Microsoft manages to rustle up a fix for this critical security threat," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos. "But switching rashly away from Internet Explorer might be a mistake. Some users may be unfamiliar with a different browser and cause support problems, and some web-based applications may not work at all if you're not using Internet Explorer."

"Switching browsers only makes sense if you really know what you are doing with the browser you are swapping to. It may very well be a case of 'better the devil you know'," continued Cluley.

Graham Cluley is available for comment on +44 (0)7990 552181.

Further information about the issue and the French government's announcement, can be found on Graham Cluley's blog at: http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/01/18/french-government

Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter: @gcluley

Graham Cluley is recipient of two most prestigious awards in this knowledge domain:

- IT Security Blog of the Year: http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc

- Twitter user of the Year: http://www.twitter.com/gcluley

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More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use, and that deliver the industry’s lowest TCO. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs—a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, UK and Boston, US. More information is available at www.sophos.com