tell me how using Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7 is safe

[ron7000]

I constantly hear about computer security
finally got around to having my computer changed over to windows 7 from windows xp,
but the new windows 7 computer has IE 8.
how do you justify that?
:huh:

 

[JDobbsy1987]

how do you justify that?:huh:

Sorry but can you clarify what you mean by this, as a general rule you would normally install the latest versions/updates as these include fixes/patches to security holes as well as bug fixes and potential compatibility/performance improvements.

IE8 is old, IE11 is the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 8 will probably be the version of IE that was built into the installation media that was used to install Windows 7, have you done Windows Updates?

Regards,
Jamie

 

[ron7000]

my work computer, it is managed for me. I don't do any installing, maintaining, patching on it.
right click my computer properties = Windows 7 Professional, Service pack 1.
Launch internet explorer - Help About = IE 8 version 8.0.7601.17514, update versions : 0
Under program & features installed updates... there are currently 47 for office professional plus 2010 and 212 updates for microsoft windows.

I look stuff on the web, been getting more and more errors lately saying my browser is out of date. websites that use HTML5 don't work, says html5 not supported in the browser and i was told to install chrome.

new policies went into effect one of which is all external mass storage devices will be disabled, so I cannot use a USB key or SD card from a camera to offload pictures... because apparently over 1000 pc's monthly are infected with malware through the use of usb flash devices.
so if that's the case, how can the powers that be justify using IE8?

 

[JDobbsy1987]

In my opinion it's very strange that the people who manage your computers take this approach.

As you mentioned you have started seeing more errors and you will only start seeing more in time, if you do switch to Chrome then everyday browsing will be corrected and you probably won't see any of the errors you are currently getting with the outdated IE8 however this does not resolve any security issues.

Whether you use IE or not, any security holes that exist can be exploited, it should be updated primarily to patch any security holes.

Are your IT team aware how outdated it is?
Could they have missed something during the installation such as installing latest updates etc?

Do you have an Anti-Virus protection installed?

Regards,
Jamie

 

[ron7000]

"Approximately 25 percent of malware introduced to network arrives via storage devices such as thumb drives and external hard drives – more than 1,000 PCs are infected monthly. This happens when a user, unaware that a USB drive is infected, plugs it into a company computer. Benchmarking shows this infection rate to be typical for companies still using USB storage devices, even those with up-to-date virus protection."

I work for a large company, that's part of a corporation.
We are using Symantec Endpoint Protection.
Is the IT team aware how outdated it is? I have to imagine so.
In the past we were told not to use any unauthorized software, including web browsers and that only "Internet Explorer" was "approved". This was a couple years ago when XP was dominate, but now everything is Windows 7.

 

[ron7000]

could they have missed something during the installation?
Well to my knowledge IE9 or IE10 is standard with Windows 7, don't you have to go out of your way to revert back to IE8?

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Well to my knowledge IE9 or IE10 is standard with Windows 7, don't you have to go out of your way to revert back to IE8?

I would say this is the norm today but when Win 7 first came out it had IE8 installed by default (IE11 came out in 2011).

You are right to question the version and in my opinion it should be updated unless there was a compelling reason not too such as an old internal system (even in this case though that system should be made compatible with later versions of IE by now if that was the case).

Unfortunately it would appear the people that can fix this don't necessarily see this as an issue for whatever reason that may be.

Do other people in your company have the same version of IE or is it just you.

Regards,
Jamie

 

[ron7000]

i believe everything is running IE8 on windows 7.
I remember years back when everything was XP and IE6 was the standard, we were never upgraded to IE7 nor IE8 for winxp. And I think the reason was because websites written by the company/corporation were written to work with IE6... so if you updated your browser then things weren't compatible.

the reason i'm asking is because...
over a 1000 pc's are infected monthly by malware.... because of external thumb drives and hard drives... it could never be the out of date web browser :sarc:

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I would forward these to your it crew
Ie11 Enterprise mode,
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/43977-ie11-enterprise-mode-turn-off-sites.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/43972-ie11-enterprise-mode-enable-disable-users.html

All I can add is if I were you I wouldn't do any type of Personal banking or purchases on this machine

 

[andrew129260]

over a 1000 pc's are infected monthly by malware.... because of external thumb drives and hard drives... it could never be the out of date web browser :sarc:

Are you guys admins? IF so, shame on your IT department.


Are they work related drives and sharing work related files?



IE8 ships with windows 7. Even service pack 1 does not upgrade IE. You have to manually update it or go through windows update to upgrade internet explorer. Windows 7 can be upgraded to 9, 10 and 11. IE 11 is the last version of internet explorer supported on windows 7.

Your IT department likely did not miss anything.

They know that certain internal websites and other things will only work with IE8, so that is why you are on that version. All work related items would work fine in IE8. I am guessing that you are doing things not work related, otherwise you would not see the message about upgrading your browser. I see that all the time at my job.

IE11 does have Enterprise mode, ( a good step forward) but it only works with some internal websites - not all. It is not a full solution to solve all issues. Some web internal applications require old versions of java, so they need older versions of internet explorer to work since the addon breaks past IE9.

One thing is clear: Companies need to stop depending on internal websites/web apps, and specific browsers. Will that ever happen? Nope.

Unfortunately, some things just cannot move fast in an company IT department. If you worked in it, you would know.
Usually though, security is not to much of a issue if the users are standard users and not admins. They cannot install or change anything. (typically) This severely limits malware from being able to do anything. It would be great though if more up to date browsers could be used. In reality though, most places should just simply have good filters and only allow you on work related sites and/or internal sites. Then the issue is mostly solved.

Now the companies who have people run as admin, then they deserve anything that comes to them.

EDIT:

Also, know that IE8 on windows XP is not the same IE8 on windows 7. Windows 7 IE8 has more security options and features, and is combined with UAC and has better memory protection then what XP can offer. So while running IE8 on XP is defiantly not safe, windows 7 is slightly better due to the new security infrastructure in the OS. But it still is bad, just only slightly better.

 

[techtitan100]

I want to add on that some new computers that come with Windows 7 will ship with IE9, the past 2 laptops that I bought new came with IE9, I upgraded to IE11 and found that I didn't like it and uninstalled after a disk cleanup, I uninstalled IE11 and found out it went back to IE8 and I tried to use it and lots of websites were not working properly and also they were not displaying correctly either, so what I did was got myself back up to IE10 immediately and things went back to normal