40% of surfers don't bother with browser security updates

[Mr.Sam]

A recent collaborative study between Google, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and IBM offers new insight (http://www.techzoom.net/publications/insecurity-iceberg/index.en) into how many people surfing the web are doing so safely. According to the report, a clear majority of users (some 59 percent) are using the latest version of their preferred Internet browser—but that still leaves 40.1 percent who aren't. That's a troublingly high number for anyone working in IT security, given that virtually all (89.4 percent) of the vulnerabilities reported in 2007 were remote exploits. Not all of these exploits specifically targeted the web browser, but it's become the target of choice for an increasingly large percentage of all attacks. Proper browser security is therefore of paramount concern.

http://media.arstechnica.com/news.media/browserupdate.jpg
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-40-of-surfers-dont-bother-with-browser-security-updates.html



I find it amazing how people simply do not bother to update their browser :s

[DaveTaylor]

I update mine weekly as I use webkit so mehh

[iJoe]

I updated firefox pretty much instantly

isuppose most are business' / schools

my school uses ie 6 i think

[iUnknown]

Some people prefer the old browsers, I didn't update to firefox 3 immediately. It works differently and sometimes there are some bugs or annoying things... people wait for reviews before updating and some people who don't quite understand the computers and don't use them that often will not understand how/why to upgrade.

[Agnostic Bear]

My Firefox shouts at me whenever I need an update so I just press ok.

[bo$$]

part of that 40% being me.............

[Mario]

My Firefox shouts at me whenever I need an update so I just press ok.
Lol same, just obey the screaming fox.

[Trinity]

I tend not to update firefox often incase some of the addons aren't compatible, although I occasionally obey the screaming fox.

[today]

i dont update as soon as firefox tells me. I normally wait like two/three weeks then just think oh i should upgrade now..

[iUnknown]

i dont update as soon as firefox tells me. I normally wait like two/three weeks then just think oh i should upgrade now..

that's what I do too... I think a lot of people do that.

[Recursion]

Me three.

[iUnknown]

I understand why now.... firefox keeps crashing every like minute now... so I have to downgrade back to firefox 2 until they fix these errors.