The Problem

Internet Explorer should be avoided at all costs:

• It is the preferred vector of attack for many scams. Not using it will protect you from many fraudulent activities
• It lacks many useful features: tabbed browsing, popup blocking, etc.
• It is not compliant with many Web standards. Many valid pages and images do not display properly. (ie: some of the icons on this site)
• It is prone to crashing. See our IE exploits section for some examples

For more details on why you should avoid IE, visit browsehappy.com, or one of the following:

The News Coverage

Many respected news site have started to realise the danger and are alerting the masses:

• news.zdnet.co.uk: "Security firms round on IE": Microsoft's Internet browser makes Web surfing unsafe, according to several security experts
• Also from zdnet.com but with humour: "Dear IE, I'm leaving you for good"
• eweek.com: : "Jaded Users Roll Their Eyes at IE's Latest Security Debacle"
• internetnews.com: "US-CERT: Beware of IE"
• theregister.co.uk: "CERT recommends anything but IE"
• pcmag.com: "Time to Find an IE Alternative?"
• computerworld.com: "Internet Explorer carved up by zero-day hole"
• osnews.com: "Is Internet Explorer Living on Borrowed Time?"
• openopen.org: "Should you change your browser?"
• cnet.com: "Why you should switch to Firefox", and what is wrong with IE
• msnbc.com (Forbes): "Better browser now the best - Haven't given Firefox a try? Now's the time"
• msn.com: "How Mozilla's Firefox trumps Internet Explorer". When a site owned by Microsoft starts to advocate for Open-source solutions, you know something serious is happening!
• Lying about Microsoft's responsability is the best that Bill Gates could do when questionned about these issues. Most publicised exploits and viruses use vulerabilities in IE or Windows libraries, not third party software.

Technical Details

For more information about these technical issues:

• iebug.com: summarizes Internet Explorer, Outlook and JVM issues posted to various security mailing lists. Updated every hour.
• safecenter.net: a list of the current issues that affect IE for which there is no easy workaround...
• die.leox.com: the list of IE unpatched vulnerabilities, as originally found on pivx.com
• newnetworks.com: IE security FAQ
• IE's Poor Performance (Browsers speed compared)

Fortunately, there are better alternatives!