Online risk due to browser flaws

Almost half the online population is at risk because users have not installed security updates to their browsers, says a study.

The Swiss Institute of Technology, Google and IBM conducted the study and found 600 million users had not updated their browsers.
"Failure to apply patches promptly or missing them entirely is a recipe for disaster," the report said.
Cyber criminals are frequently using websites to attack users, it added.
The report authors recommended that a "best before" date, similar to the food industry, should be introduced to browsers, helping to educate users about the need to "refresh" their browser.
Browsers are often "patched" by software providers to tackle recently discovered flaws and security holes.
Criminals exploit these holes with malicious code hidden in websites to hijack machines.
The study said Firefox users tended to use the most up-to-date versions, while Internet Explorer users were the slowest to update their browsers.
More than 83% of Firefox users were using the latest, most secure browser version, compared to 65% of Safari users, 56% of Opera users and 47% of Internet Explorer users.
The study said that not using the latest version of a browser was only one part of the security issues faced by net users.

BROWSER MARKET SHARE*

Internet Explorer 78%
Firefox 16%
Safari 3%
Opera 1%
*Source: Swiss Institute of Technology