Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has told Germans to avoid using any version of Internet Explorer after a security vulnerability lead to attacks against Google, Adobe, and other large organisations last week.

Microsoft has hit back at claims, noting that the attacks could be avoided if the security zone settings were set to high.

“Using Internet Explorer in ‘secure mode’, as well as turning off Active Scripting, makes attacks more difficult but can not fully prevent them,” BSI said in a further statement.

Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability, which is present in all versions of Internet Explorer, including IE8 on Windows 7.

Microsoft is expected to release a patch in the coming weeks.

With 2009 now over, it’s time to analyse web browser market share over the last 12 months.

It’s been a big year for web browsers, with Internet Explorer taking a massive loss, down from 75.18% share in December 2008, to 62.69% share in December 2009.

Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera were all big winners, ending the year up higher than they started.

Google Chrome has had such an impact that it now holds third place in the browser market, which has been held by Safari for the last number of years.

We have compiled a graph below to show you the browser movements over the last 12 months.

All data has been provided by Market Share by Net Applications.

The European Union (EU) has accepted Microsoft’s proposal for a browser ballot screen, allowing Windows users to choose their browser on first run.

The ballot screen will be pushed out to users of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 via Windows Update for users in the EU and neighbouring countries.

The ballot screen is required to be in place for at least the next 5 years, or Microsoft face fines of up to 10% of it’s world wide turnover.

On release, the ballot screen is set to include the 5 major browser – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera – all in a random order. Users will also be able to scroll down the screen to choose less popular browsers. These include AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser.

The list of browsers is set to be reviewed every 6 months.

“We hope this closes a long chapter in a sometimes uneasy relationship with the Commission, and we hope it opens a new one,” said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

The ballot screen is expected to be pushed out to users in the first part of 2010.

Microsoft has pushed out the IE Cumulative Security Update for December 2009 via Windows Update and Microsoft Update.

The update is rated as critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, 6, 6 SP1, 7, and 8 for all versions of Windows except Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 where the update is only rated as moderate.

The update fixes five reported vulnerabilities in the browsers.

Being a cumulative update, it contains all previously released updated for Internet Explorer and is recommended for all users.

More information on the update can be found below:

• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-072
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 976325

Microsoft has conceded to pressure from the European Union (EU), and will now randomise the order of web browsers displayed on the systems browser ballot screen for EU users.

This comes as a bit of a blow for Apple, who were in line to have Safari first on the ballot screen.

Microsoft is now expecting approval of the new ballot screen before Christmas, and will push out an update to all Windows users in the EU with the ballot screen update.

The browser ballot screen will run the first time a user opens Internet Explorer, and will offer the user a choice of browser.

Currently, Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer are all set to be included on the ballot screen.

The end may finally be in sight for Microsoft in the anti-trust case.

November has been another standard month, with Internet Explorer bleeding more market share, falling from 64.64% in October to 63.62%, while it looks like most of those users have moved to Firefox, which has gone from 24.07% to 24.72% share.

Safari lost a bit of ground for the month, moving from 4.42% to 4.36%, but rival web kit browser Chrome is up from 3.58% to 3.93%. At this rate, Google Chrome usage will overtake Safari some time in the first half of 2010.

Toping out the major browsers is Opera who also rose for the month, moving from 2.17% to 2.31%.

A big thanks to Market Share by Net Applications for the month’s statistics.

Development of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) seems to be going full steam ahead at Microsoft, with the first news starting to come out from the campus.

Firstly, it seems that IE9 will feature hardware accelerated rendering.

“We think that the hardware you run on should shine through the browser,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live division.

This means that IE9 will be able to use graphics hardware to accelerate the rendering of images, videos and animations.

Early benchmarks of the JavaScript engine are also available, showing that IE9 is about the same speed as Firefox 3.5 in it’s early stage, more than 4 times faster than IE8.

A full run down on what to expect from IE9 can be read in An Early Look At IE9 for Developers.

Browser market share stats are out for October 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

As usual, Internet Explorer was down for the month, dropping from 65.71% to 64.64%, while Opera had a surprise loss, albeit only small,  from 2.19% to 2.17%.

Firefox had a small gain, jumping from 23.75% to 24.07%. Safari was also up 4.24% to 4.42%.

Google Chrome share was the biggest winner for October, jumping from 3.17% to 3.58%.

Opera’s drop off is likely from users who were testing Opera 10 and have gone back to their original browser. The jump for Safari suggests strong sales for Apple Mac’s, confirming the bumper year the Cupertino based company has been having.

Microsoft has made changes to the browser ballot screen that will be shipped with Windows 7, and rolled out to past versions of Windows in European Union countries, in a bid to keep the European Union happy.

The ballot screen will give users the easy choice to download and install up to 12 different browsers, with the big 5 – Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera heading up the list.

Changes to the ballot screen include:

• Make it so competing browsers can be downloaded from the ballot screen more quickly and easily
• Ensure equivalent placement on the Windows 7 taskbar for Internet Explorer and all other browser icons
• Add introductory information, improving the design of the ballot page about each browser to help users make more informed choices
• Alphabetize the list of browsers so that the five most popular are listed first (by vendor), followed by the next seven most popular (also alphabetically ordered), so that 12 choices are displayed in total
• Provide the browser ballot to users for five years

The browser ballot screen is set to be rolled out to users on October 22nd, the same day Windows 7 goes on sale worldwide.

Web browser market share results are out for September 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer has had more than a 1% drop this month, falling from 66.97% to 65.71%, it’s biggest single month drop since November 2008.

Other browser have had a good month, with Firefox moving from 22.98% to 23.75%.

Safari has moved from 4.07% to 4.24%, while Google Chrome has passed the 3% mark moving to 3.17% – up from 2.84%.

Opera has also had a good month, most likely helped by the release of Opera 10, hitting a share of 2.19%, up from 2.04%.

The browser wars seem to be slowly eroding Microsoft’s dominance, which can only lead to greater innovation and better browsers for consumers.