While it may be a very nice and handy browser - it also is the browser with the most security holes in it. I made a page once with a few exploits, and virtually everyone's (including my supposedly PATCHED version) crashed.
Netscape on the other hand fared much better, only succumbing to a rapidly flashing black and white screen which could be dealt with.

An exploit which killed netscape mail could easily be dealt with.

What was more worrying was that IE made the WHOLE computer crash, not just the browser.

There are some very nasty exploits which rogue webmasters can employ which steal your cookies. To the layman this may seem like a bizarre phrase, but the cookies are little bits of data stored by your browser so websites can read them and display a customised webpage for you.

In rare cases, your credit card number might be stored in a cookie if you made an online transaction through a vendor who was less than tidy with his secure payment software.


The only solution is to make SURE you have all the latest updates from microsoft.com, and even then you may not be safe.

Also, a virus checker will come in handy too. (See opinion on Norton Anti Virus)

Play it safe