Old browsers are running behind your firewall (Aug 5, 2016)

Internet Explorer (commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of web browsers developed by Microsoft. The first version of Internet Explorer made its debut on August 16, 1995. The latest version, Internet Explorer 11, was released on October 17, 2013. Internet Explorer attained its peak of usage share (about 95%) during 2002 and 2003. On March 17, 2015, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Edge will replace Internet Explorer as the default browser on its Windows 10 devices. Microsoft will gradually phase out Internet Explorer.

On January 12th 2016, Microsoft announced it will stop supporting older versions of Internet Explorer. It means from now on, Internet Explorer 10 and prior will not get security updates. However many people are still using older versions of Internet Explorer, and it has become a potential threat.

In July 2016, Dell SonicWALL observed that:

• 0.7% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 5.x.
• 60.6% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 6.x.
• 71.1% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 7.x.
• 22.4% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 8.x.
• 24.3% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 9.x.
• 31.5% of firewalls reported use of Internet Explorer 10.x.

Unpatched Internet Explorer is insecure and can damage the system. Dell SonicWALL urges all our customers to review their environment and stop using Internet Explorer 10 and prior.

Dell SonicWALL customers can use the following signatures to identify the machines running different versions of Internet Explorer:

• APP sid:10275 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 5.0
• APP sid:10269 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 6.0
• APP sid:10270 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 7.0
• APP sid:10271 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 8.0
• APP sid:10272 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 9.0
• APP sid:10273 Microsoft Internet Explorer — HTTP User-Agent MSIE 10.0

Security News

The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team gathers, analyzes and vets cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories. The research team identifies, analyzes, and mitigates critical vulnerabilities and malware daily through in-depth research, which drives protection for all SonicWall customers. In addition to safeguarding networks globally, the research team supports the larger threat intelligence community by releasing weekly deep technical analyses of the most critical threats to small businesses, providing critical knowledge that defenders need to protect their networks.