A comprehensive study entitled, "Understanding the Web browser threat: Examination of vulnerable online Web browser populations and the "insecurity iceberg"" was recently released. It concludes that only 60 percent of the world's Internet users surf with the latest, most-secure versions of their preferred browsers.

Why is this important? Upgrading to the latest, most-secure version of your favorite browser will provide better protection from Web dangers, such as spyware, phishing, and viruses. It is also important because it relates to changes that are coming to the FDLP Desktop.

A re-release of the FDLP Desktop is due in the next few months. This re-release will improve our dissemination of Program-related content and news, but also release new community-based interactivity.

During the course of the redesign, our research has shown that many of our users are surfing with legacy browsers. In addition to these legacy browsers being vulnerable to various Web dangers, they are also not built to today's Web standards. While the upcoming re-release of the FDLP Desktop is being backcoded to allow for legacy browsers, such as IE6, we are not ensuring 100% compatibility. Meanwhile, users utilizing IE6 to surf the new Desktop will receive a warning at the top of their screen regarding the dangers of IE6 and an encouragement to upgrade.

So, with that said, which browsers/versions should we be using? Based on the report, they are:

• Firefox 2 and 3
• Internet Explorer 7
• Opera 9
• Safari 3

Stay tuned! Next week, I will be releasing more information about the upcoming re-release of the FDLP Desktop as well as some new tools that we have up our sleeves.