BE: Walloon government to restrict use of open source web browser

Hervé Jamar, member of parliament for the Walloon Liberals (MR), in early October asked the government to confirm reports in the daily newspaper L'Echo and by Datanews in late September that the government is requesting its staff to stop using Firefox and revert to Microsoft's proprietary browser Internet Explorer version 6 (IE6).

"The Echo and experts that we consulted says IE6 dates is ten years old and has some 150 known security vulnerabilities", Jamar says in a question published on his website. He says that Microsoft's browser is considered among the least safe, and that Firefox on the other hand is considered to be one of the safest web browsers available.

The MP also wants to know how the Walloon government reconciles the decision with the region's IT policy, that aims to "promote and utilise to the extent possible, open standards and open source software to be used by public administrations,  public agencies and ministries."

"One wonders what goes on in the heads of our public servants", Jamar earlier this month asked during a debate in the parliament, according to Datanews. The magazine also published the answer by Rudy Demotte, minister-President of Wallonia.

"The administrations at the moment maintains more than three hundred applications. In this context, we must ensure the functioning of our IT systems and allow access to all data, while minimizing acquisition costs. One way to do this is to use standard software, and for now, IE6 is one of these, being installed on almost all of our 10,000 desktops PCs. But we are aware that this software does not conform to modern technological standards."

Demotte said the IT department will soon determine which web browser is the best to use.

More information:

Web site Hervé Jamar

Question by Hervé Jamar (in French, pdf)

Datanews news item (in French)