According to this article at the BBC, Paypal said it was “an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers such as Internet Explorer 4”. Paypal said some users were still using Internet Explorer 3 , released more than 10 years ago. It lacks many of the security and safety features needed to protect users from phishing and other online attacks.
As explained in Wikipedia, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.
Paypal said customers will first be warned that a browser is unsafe but could then be blocked if they continue using it.
What should you do? Well according to PayPal, you should be using the latest version of Internet Explorer because it supports EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it with an add-on but Apple’s Safari browser for Mac and PCs does not. I personally think that any version of Internet Explorer is absolute garbage, you are better off with FireFox. If you would like to install the EV SSL plugin from Verisign, you can get it here.. The next version of FireFox, version 3, will have this built in, as well as Opera 9.5.
