While we’re considering attack surfaces, Microsoft last week reminded everyone that they’d finally retire the Internet Explorer 11 web browser from some Windows 10 versions in June and replace it with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge.
After being retired on June 15, 2022, the Internet Explorer desktop application will be disabled and out of support, automatically redirecting the users to Microsoft Edge when launched.
The IE11 retirement impacts Internet Explorer 11 desktop apps delivered via the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) to systems running Windows 10 client SKUs (version 20H2 and later) and Windows 10 IoT (version 20H2 and later).
The original announcements were back in August 2020.
Since the lead today was all about recent breaches, how about Internet Explorer 11 still lying around.. and Microsoft feeling the need to remind everyone. There has to be a reason – and I’d hazard it’s because they see too many customers and applications using it. When we have active warnings about locking systems down, seeing this still out there is pretty disheartening…. or an opportunity to fix it and deliver service.