Internet Explorer Security Flaws Overblown

David Schatsky | December 21, 2004, 12:20 PM

Sure, when I ran Search & Destroy, a spyware finder, on my mother's computer, some 300 illicit files were identified, including several running programs that were crippling her machine and killing performance. Sure she uses IE with AOL. But I've been using IE for years, and didn't think I was ever affected by the much publicized security problems of IE. So I just ran Search & Destroy to audit my machine and found that, indeed, all I've got going on is cookies, which I leave enabled because of the convenience they confer.

I downloaded Netscape in 1994 and have been browsing the Web ever since, with IE for the last 4 or 5 years I would say, and have never been affected in any way by security problems. Perhaps it's because I'm what we like to call a "highly tenured" user and know what not to do. But 95% of online users have been online for more than a year, and in 2009 95% of a larger online population will have been online for least least 2 years.

Defensive surfing, which comes from experience, makes the current crop of browser security concerns moot.

I think I'll back up my harddrive right now, in case this comment provokes anyone to malice.