In the PC browser market, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) still dominates with a 58 per cent market share across the globe, as per tech research firm netmarketshare.com data.
While, in India, the IE is the favoured browser of government agencies as well as the banking sector, gs.statcounter.com, which uses page views to study Internet traffic movement, ranks the browser at number 3 with just over 10 per cent market share in March in the country, way below Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox. Incidentally, gs.statcounter.com puts IE’s global market share at 21.4 per cent, less than half of Chrome.
As per the data from India, it could be assumed that Indians use the browser only when they have no other option. However, that is not good news because if they are forced to use IE, it is invariably to complete a banking transaction or to make a payment to the government.
While Microsoft has said that the flaw lets attackers “gain the same user rights as the current user”, it has added that a major chunk of users would not be affected as IE, for most of the newer Windows servers, runs in a restricted mode known as Enhanced Security Configuration which negates the vulnerability.
However, it would still be wise to increase the security rating in the IE settings. This is also the first big flaw exposed after the end of support for Windows XP, and it is only natural that those with the old operating system could be more vulnerable than others. Weeks before the end of support on April 8, Microsoft had warned that about 16 per cent users were still stuck on Windows XP in India.
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/