The short story for anyone browsing the web is summed up in this M$ warning about issues with the TLS 1.0 security protocols used in “secure” connections by most browsers. By default, Internet Exploder, in Windows 7, uses TLS 1.0 which is vulnerable to a “man in the middle” attack that could compromise a user’s personal information. In XP, this “default” is also the only level of TLS that is available, but by jumping through a few hoops, one can enable TLS 1.1 in IE in a Win7 environment.
Chrome and Firefox are still awaiting patches that would enable them to use TLS 1.1.
Meanwhile, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 have been available to Opera users since 2009.
Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Done. All without having to mess with some external download from a M$ “Knowledge base” article or mess around with “Internet Options” (that only affect IE and then only allow adding implementation of the older TLS 1.1).
Built into the thing from long since before the problem was identified by other browser developers. Nice.
Enjoy your online banking with IE, Chrome or Firefox!