After Microsoft confirmed that a hole in its Internet Explorer browser was
used in the December cyber attacks on Google and at least 33 other outfits, a
trio of security-conscious nations - Germany, France, and Australia - went so
far as to warn their citizens against the use of IE. And that led to a very good
week for the likes of Opera and Mozilla.
Following an IE warning from the German government, Opera saw German
downloads of its desktop browser more than double. And in Australia, where a
similar warning was issued, its downloads leaped 37 per cent.
Meanwhile, Mozilla saw a "statistically significant rise" in the number of
downloads originating from both Germany and France, the third nation to warn
against the use of IE.
