Penn State Tells 80,000 Students To Chuck IE

[a Bill]

Penn State University on Wednesday issued an alert to students and staff recommending that they dump IE and use a different browser.

Here (http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55301109)

[davidw]

I just don't understand it - so many people having so many problems. I've used IE for years without any trouble. Of course, I use a firewall, antivirus, and I surf responsibly. My hijack-this log can be written down on paper because its so short. The message to the students should have been "inexperienced users who have no clue - get rid of IE." The ONLY times I've ever had any problems is when I did something I KNOW I shouldn't have. :P

[a Bill]

Most people don't think, they just do. I see this all the time and it scares me but what can I do but fix their self inflicted problems and tell them "Don't do that!"

I've even seen corporate networks that are frightenly similar in their singular lack of security awareness and these are Fortune 500 companies.

[Axel]

remember that these mandates are written by staffers who often have no technical clue what they are ordering......... I'm often faced by similar issues - the sad part is that some of these mandates occasionally come from the IT department..... - On the other hand - IE being the most popular browser has more virus code and pop-ups built for it than other browser models - there's a chance there's some wisdom here - maybe.....

[a Bill]

I'm sorry to say I've had to deal with the mismanagement sorts you mention. It's one of the reasons any e-mail I am about to send to a mismanager has to be approved by my superior before it's allowed to be sent. You see, I have a very low tolerance for stupidity ;) Even worse, I am not politically correct. I don't say "this is an issue we are correcting", instead I say, "I'm fixing somebodies screw up".

I think what this boils down to is that their IT people are fed up with reinstalling Windows. By outlawing IE they can tell the user "tough cookies" if they need help and IE is installed.

No real good will come of this. I believe it to be more of an attention grabbing ploy either by Penn State, showing how L33t they are or by their IT department, claiming their budget isn't big enough. I've become even more cynical than ever it seems :)