Apologies for the computer question (we need a computer forum!)…
I recently downloaded some “critical” upgrades to my wife’s version of Internet Explorer. Ever since then, she can’t access her banking pages or, it seems, anything secure. What gives?
It could just be that, somehow, your wife’s IE has been set to reject cookies. On most websites, you’d never know the difference, but a lot of banking and brokerage sites require the use of cookies. While some might give you an error message, others might simply fail to work (I’ve seen this happen on one of my own financial sites).
Take a look at Tools/Internet Options/Privacy/Advanced. Set it to override the automatic handling of cookies, and to allow both types of cookies (both first-party and third-party), and see if that helps.