In response to security concerns of SSL 3.0 vulnerability to Poodle attack, Sagepay are upgrading their system and subsequently have announced they won’t be supporting Internet Explorer 8 and older from the 2nd December. Does this really matter when these users make up less than 5% of the global users in 2015?
Biggest payment processing providers in the UK
It made me wonder who are the biggest payment providers in the UK and whether they offer services to older browser users. I can’t blame them for not supporting every legacy browser, especially if it makes them vulnerable, as security is their priority, but is it a real possibility that IE6, 7 & 8 users will soon see a day when they can’t pay for anything online?
The largest payment processors in the UK are likely to be Worldpay (+-40%), Barclays (+-20%), Global Payments who bought out HSBC’s merchant services (Global Iris and GP Webpay, +-20%) and Paypal (+-20%). Sagepay is a small but growing member of this band. Worldpay offer limited browser compatibility for IE8 but full compatibility from IE9+, Barclays appears to be IE9+, Sagepay (from December) IE9+, and though I can’t find a browser compatibility list for Global Payments or Paypal, Paypal ended community support for IE8 in July 2015 and the forums are full of users who find the pages don’t work in older IE versions.
So yes, this could be a real problem for older browser users. What can be done about it? For the consumer, upgrade your Internet Explorer (at cost) or download a free modern browser (Chrome or Firefox). For a shop owner, some kind of message along the lines of ‘these payment pages work best in IE9 and above, we recommend you upgrade’ would help users.