Once Again, the British Goverment is behind the times. In defience of the Internet, they will not follow the suit of technologically advanced civilizations such as the Germans and French by throwing Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6.0 out of the window. The browser that came out at the start of the century is in software terms considered to be ancient.
This comes as a blow to both the Microsoft anti IE6 people and the Tech world where people are also against IE6. As a developer I am well aware that getting a site to look right in a ancient browser is no easy task. Indeed I’ve spent many hours fighting just to get sites working right on more modern browsers. Especially given the current client’s inistance on cross platform cross browser to the pixel perfection (Mac, Linux and Windows on MSIE 7,8, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari where availible).
The Goverment states they take information security seriously. Wait a minute, do you remember this:
“Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing. ”
HMRC
Or this:
“The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted that it has lost 340 laptops in the past two years with less than half having encrypted data.”
Ministry of Defense
Hope you didnt forget this:
“Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, admitted that the details of three million learner drivers had gone missing when a hard drive was lost in Iowa.”
Department of Transport
On a related matter, what does a hard drive of learner drivers need to be in Iowa in the first place for.
So, what were we saying?
Ah yes, the British Goverment due to the worry of security wont upgrade from the ancient Browser that everyone in civilized worlds is against. Perhaps its time to start taking personal data security seriously by starting with an upgrade of software. If testing goverment services for complience with modern browsers then surely the savings associated with security by not allowing data to go missing benefits us all.
References
HM Goverment
ComputerWorld
ComputerWorld
BBC News
SC Magazine
The Telegraph
