Internet Explorer Security Threat

Latest Articles

Internet Explorer Security Threat
Page 1, 2, 3 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> IT Matters

Author

Message

patmac

Joined: 16 Nov 2006
Posts: 47
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 1:02 pm Post subject: Internet Explorer Security Threat
Found this news item in todays paper. Members should be careful. It is probably much safer to use Firefox. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1095266/Microsoft-rush-security-patch-Internet-Explorer-Chinese-fraudsters-use-flaw-hijack-computers.html

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 1:25 pm Post subject:
Further information... https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7787445.stm

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28248
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 1:49 pm Post subject:

Not is the time to switch to another browser, this has been known about for over a week and is only just getting patched. Mickysoft have come up with the justification that only .02% or some such of web sites are infected, doesn't take much math to realize how many web sites a PC may visit and how many PCs there are....

Other browsers may have other vulnerabilities but they are less of a target and tend to get patched quicker.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 2:48 pm Post subject:
Patch available from 1800 tonight.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 2:50 pm Post subject:
Firefox available right now. I'm stunned 70% of people still use IE.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 2:51 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Firefox available right now. I'm stunned 70% of people still use IE.

I'm one of those.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 2:54 pm Post subject:
But isn't it full of security holes, slower and less flexible than Firefox?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28248
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 3:04 pm Post subject:
Much less standards compliant, security holes, lacking in all the great addons, security holes, clunkier interface, security holes....

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 3:04 pm Post subject:
Yes, but I thought it would be helpful for those who do use it.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 3:06 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

But isn't it full of security holes, slower and less flexible than Firefox?

Security: Only if you don't keep up with patches and swim in a sewer. Other browsers have security issues. Worst in my book is Safari. Firefox is pretty good.

Slower: Not noticed it. IE7 renders as quickly as FF and Chrome - for me.

Flexible: Depends on personal circumstances. In this respect FF has a greater range of plugins available. I use FF as well and have yet to keep a plugin that works well enough for me. I find IE7Pro meets all my needs in this respect but others will find differently.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 5:27 pm Post subject:
To counter the IE scare brigade Mozilla has just release 8 patches or FireFox, three of which are classified as critical. Whilst not as severe as IE's vulnerability these highlight that alternative browsers are also at risk. Firefox should prompt you to update.

mark

Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 2191
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 5:35 pm Post subject:

Firefox is just so useful ..
it is so easy an user friendly
these lovely easy to install extensions make it so flexible - just add features you want.
and when you install them it is lovely to suddenly find your browser can switch between multiple google mails account - or use google mail as a file server, or auto make tiny urls or whatever..

can't think how I held out with internet explorer for so long..

Google chrome is fast and simple - and probably the most elegent of the browsers - but doesn't have the range of extensions firefox has that makes my life so much easier - so i'm not likely to swap over.

mark

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 5:36 pm Post subject:
And I can't reply to hotmails in Chrome, and it doesn't like Facebook. At least one of these is a problem with it, but, those aside, it's nice enough.

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 5:51 pm Post subject:

jema wrote:

Much less standards compliant, security holes, lacking in all the great addons, security holes, clunkier interface, security holes....

Standards compliance is of no relevance to the vast majority of surfers, for whom IE itself is the de facto standard. I'd love to know when these "standards" were dreamt up why they deliberately decided to make them different to the IE standard? The standards compliant box-model is a clear example of this deliberate obtuseness, where they went out of their way to come up with an alternative non-intuitive scheme, just to be different. When they have the good grace to ditch that, I will take more notice of them. Remember that Microsoft, unlike the so-called standards compliant browsers, has to continue to support backward compatibility with earlier versions still used by millions of users.

Having said that, I used FF more than IE7 - but subjectively IE7 is faster (and Chrome is even faster).

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 08 5:57 pm Post subject:
Err, they don't. Mac users were abandoned about two or three years ago.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> IT Matters	All times are GMT Page 1, 2, 3 Next
Page 1 of 3

View Latest Posts