Old IE support ends; BlueScope's espionage worries; BoM's outage woes

Microsoft has officially ended support for older versions of Internet Explorer, meaning those versions will no longer receive technical support or security updates.

Exactly which versions of Internet Explorer are considered “older" depends on the operating system you're using. As Microsoft explained: “Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates."

Microsoft's Support Lifecycle FAQ includes a table outlining which versions of Internet Explorer are considered 'current' for which operating system.

According to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of the software and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

Microsoft said that small to midsized organisations (defined as fewer than 500 employees) without web applications can update to the latest Internet Explorer using Automatic Updates. “Those with dependencies on existing web applications can locate a Microsoft Certified Partner to understand the best options to meet their business needs," the vendor said.

As for Enterprise customers, the company said: “Microsoft offers large organizations (500+ employees) in-depth technical resources, tools, and expert guidance to ease the deployment and management of Windows, Office and Internet Explorer products and technologies."

The vendor suggested Enterprise customers could learn about migration and deployment programs by contacting their Microsoft sales rep, their Certified Microsoft Partner or Microsoft Services. Microsoft also suggested Enterprise customers could learn how to pilot and deploy the latest version of Internet Explorer themselves by visiting TechNet.

BlueScope's corporate espionage worries

BluesSope Steel has launched legal action in Australia and Singapore in an attempt to stop company secrets that were allegedly stolen by a company insider from being handed to its competitors, according to news reports.

Fairfax reported that BlueScope Steel has alleged that a former software development manager at the company obtained a cache of financially important company secrets.

All up, the former employee has reportedly been accused of downloading about 40 gigabytes of company documents over a four-year period.

According to Fairfax, the data that was allegedly taken includes 13 software packages and source code for eight software programs.

Fairfax quoted the former employee's lawyer as saying: “In view of the fact that the legal proceedings are ongoing, we are not in the position to provide any comments on the matter."

BoM's weather woes

The Bureau of Meteorology experienced a technical issue recently that for some time prevented updates to its website. The issue meant that during that period, weather observations on its website were either not available or out of date.

According to an initial statement from the Bureau, a “physical networking issue" was to blame for the outage.

“The observations on the Bureau's website, including radar images, are affected by the outage and are either not available or not current," that statement said.

The initial statement said that there were contingencies in place “to communicate severe weather information".

The Bureau released a second statement later that day saying the physical networking issue had lasted for “several hours" but the fault had been resolved and most services were “now operating as normal".

This second statement said: “The Bureau has contingency arrangements in place and continued to provide priority meteorological services to aviation and emergency services through the outage."

This is not the only time in recent history the Bureau has had technical difficulties. In December, the ABC reported that China was being blamed for a cyber attack on computers at the Bureau.

At the time the ABC quoted an unnamed official at the Bureau claiming that China was behind that particular outage. Chinese officials reportedly denied the country was behind that attack.

In that story the ABC also quoted a source as saying that last year's breach “could take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix"