According to a recent article in the Guardian by Charles Arthur, many NHS and government sites may be exposed to a serious security risk. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6 running on Windows XP has been broken into by Chinese hackers. Microsoft does not appear to be concerned because IE version 6 is now ‘old hat’ having been released way back in 2000 – but an estimated 750,000 PCs across the NHS still have this combination of browser and operating system.
NHS IM&T departments guilty of malpractice?
According to a recent article in the Guardian by Charles Arthur, many NHS and government sites may be exposed to a serious security risk. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6 running on Windows XP has been broken into by Chinese hackers. Microsoft does not appear to be concerned because IE version 6 is now ‘old hat’ having been released way back in 2000 – but an estimated 750,000 PCs across the NHS still have this combination of browser and operating system.
One commentator Ed Bott, a blogger on ZDnet, accuses any IT department still running this combination of being guilty of malpractice. Just as well none of our NHS systems contain any sensitive data!!! For the full article go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/22/internet-explorer-nhs-vulnerability