14 DAY TRIAL // UK Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Jack Pickles announced that his department is considering upgrading to Internet Explorer 8, which seems out of line with the government's position of sticking with IE6 for now.
"Discussing with my department plans to upgrade staff to IE8 and ditch IE6," Mr. Pickles wrote on Twitter a few hours ago, suggesting that some UK government bodies might after all decide individually to let the 12-year-old browser go.
Her Majesty's Government expressed its official position regarding IE6 at the end of last month in a response to a petition signed by thousands of professionals, which asked the Prime Minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from the browser.
"It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users," the government representatives said at the time.
"It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users," they concluded.
It is, however, briefly mentioned in the same response that government departments are free to make their own risk and cost-effectiveness assessments based on their particular circumstances.
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at UK-based antivirus vendor Sophos, said that while he understands the level of planning such an upgrade requires, "IE 6 simply isn't a safe place to be anymore, and should be ditched as soon as possible."
"Doing nothing is not acceptable from the point of view of security, and sends the wrong message to consumers and businesses across the country," the security expert added.
We sincerely hope that Mr. Pickles and his colleagues decide to go ahead with the upgrade, so that other departments will have an example to follow.
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