Thursday, July 23, 2009

UK government fails to follow its own advice on not using IE6

From MoD sticks with insecure browser:
'The MoD is implementing a secure desktop computing service for 300,000 users worldwide through its Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme, but defence minister Quentin Davies said: "DII currently uses Internet Explorer 6 and at the current time does not have a requirement to move to an updated version."

Watson expressed his dismay at the response.

"Many civil servants use web browsers as a tool of their trade," he told GC News. "They're as important as pens and paper. So to force them to use the most decrepit browser in the world is a rare form of workplace cruelty that should be stopped.

"When you consider that the government supported Get Safe Online initiative advises that companies should upgrade from IE6, you would imagine that permanent secretaries would like to practice what they preach," he added. "Why civil servants should not be given the choice to use Firefox or Chrome or Safari is beyond me. UK web workers deserve better.'"
Emphasis mine, because I fucking loved reading that part.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Street life said...

Even more of this farce: " Home Office minister Phil Woolas told Watson that his department, the UK Border Agency and the Criminal Records Bureau are planning to upgrade from IE6 in February 2010. The Identity and Passport Service is due to move to IE7 in mid-2010.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Chris Bryant said that 57% of its networked computers had moved to IE7 by the end of June 2009, and the department expects to update the rest by end of May 2010. Department for Work and Pensions minister Jim Knight said his department plans to upgrade from IE6 to a more recent version by the end of this year.

Transport minister Chris Mole said his department moved to IE7 last year, while most of its agencies are either moving or working on moves away from IE6 - although the Highways Agency and Vehicle and Operator Services Agency have no plans to do so.

Justice minister Michael Wills said his department and its agencies were either moving already or planning moves. Culture, Media and Sport plans to complete its move to IE7 by the end of August, while Children, Schools and Families expects to transfer from IE6 during 2010-11."

They are considering moving on to IE7 a year or two from now. IE8 is out now and already available for public use. Something tells me that these idiots only stopped using abacuses like two years ago.

4:12 PM  
Blogger The Hater said...

Street life: Sadly, they all seem more modern than those not even looking to move at all, like the Highways Agency and Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. Shit, at least we only have to move them off of IE6 and not anything even more ancient than that. Even fucking Microsoft won't officially support IE6 as long as some of these agencies and companies plan to keep using it (yeah, yeah...service contract extensions...I know).

1:03 PM  

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