Are outdated browsers leaving businesses vulnerable?

It’s time to ditch Internet Explorer

In this article we take a look at research that was carried out to see if outdated browsers are leaving businesses vulnerable.

A research report by Duo was carried out analysing the browsers that are being used that aren’t fully up to date to their latest versions. Safari ranks at the top with 51% of users running out of date versions. One of the main reasons for this is that with the introduction of Safari 6.0, Apple dropped Windows support altogether meaning that the browser would no longer receive any updates. Safari is primarily a Mac OS browser due to the Windows alternative being discontinued, so theoretically many Mac users are running outdated versions of their browser.

Ranking second on the chart is Internet Explorer. IE was released by Microsoft way back in 1995, and for years was the go-to browser for the web. One of the reasons IE sparked popularity was that it came installed by default on every Windows computer, so nearly everyone with a PC used it. Back in the early 2000s, Internet Explorer held about 95% of the market share. Since then, Microsoft has discontinued Internet Explorer and provided an alternative with the introduction of Microsoft Edge back in 2017, aiming to be the successor. Many new web browsers have overtaken IE (Chrome and Firefox), even long before it was discontinued simply due to speed and updates.

However, within many businesses, Internet Explorer is still often used and this is opening businesses up to potential security holes. Since Internet Explorer is no longer supported that means it is no longer receiving updates, especially security updates from Microsoft leaving computers vulnerable. Not only are business computers left vulnerable, but also the networks that the machines operate on. This is more of a concern as attacks could spread over the network and potentially infect all of the devices on a network. One popular example of this is the WannaCry attack that took place in 2017 targeting the NHS. The ransomware was spread over the network which led to one of the largest UK cyber attacks.

The NHS lost output of patient care caused by reduced access to information and the necessary systems cost the health service an estimated £19m in the seven days following the cyber attack, the IT support during the attack was also costed at approximately £500,000 – and the support provided in the two months afterwards cost an estimated £72m.

We’re not saying that by using up to date browsers will make your business invulnerable but it will drastically decrease your chances of becoming a victim of a cyber attack.