Time to dump Internet Explorer

[Adam J Purcell]

Those of you who have noticed the Firefox link at the side of most Staggering Stories pages may wonder what it is all about. I urge everyone using Windows to click on that link and discover how to surf the Internet in safety again.

For far too long now people have blindly accepted the regular security holes discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (not to mention the irritating Pop-Up adverts and insidious spyware). Earlier this week yet another such hole was found. This time just going to a site was enough to infect your machine with malware. Usually you have to open a download or call up a page with an ActiveX module. Not this time, even if you have ActiveX disabled (and you really should) that wouldn't have saved you - this used a simple bit of web page scripting (JavaScript) along with known holes in IE and Microsoft's Web Server platform IIS. These aren't just dodgy sites that might infect you, reports have it that several large and well respected sites inadvertently became carriers of this malware. Just going to your second favourite site may have been enough to infect you. Rest assured, however, that Staggering Stories is immune to this infection - our ISP is sensible enough not to use Microsoft Web Servers.

Even if you think you're safe and are happy that you won't get infected in those few days (or more...) between the outbreak happening and Microsoft rolling out another hasty security patch I suggest you run a spyware checker on your machine. I'd recommend either of Spybot S&D or Ad-aware. Both have good free variants that will locate spyware on your computer and eliminate it. You're be amazed, and hopefully concerned, by the amount of the nasty stuff your machine will have accumulated. The vast majority of that will have come onto your machine via Internet Explorer. If you are not convinced you should dump IE then I suggest you cleanse your machine of spyware and continue with IE for a few weeks. Check your spyware again then. Clean it off and swap to Firefox for a few weeks. Look at the difference it makes...

You may think that having a firewall and anti-virus software is enough. Assuming that you'd promptly updated both against this latest threat it may not have been quick enough. Anti-virus companies don't have crystal balls, they only learn about such malware from early infections. They then have to craft an inoculation and make it available to their customers. At best several hours will have gone by. Don't take the risk unless you have to, dump IE.

IE is an out of date browser built hastily many years ago to counter the then dominant Netscape. Security was never a concern to Microsoft when they built it. IE needs a complete ground up rewrite, only that can give it the secure foundations it needs. Dump IE, it's simply not safe to use anymore.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2103152/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3840101.stm

That was a party political broadcast by the El Presidente Party.

[lordsummerisle]

While I'd first have to say that I'm not too worried about IE security flaws (having both hardware and software firewalls on the machine and running McAfee Virusscan, Lavasoft Adaware and Spybot ... paranoid or what!!) I've also got to say that Firefox is an EXCELLENT browser. It's a tenth the size of IE, loads pages faster and have some really handy features such as View In Tabs and superior Favourites control. The other nice thing about it is that it looks like IE and with a bit of configuration it can be made almost identical in day to day browsing operation, something that other browsers have fallen down with. Nobody wants to learn a new bit of software if they don't have to and Firefox makes sure you don't have to.

Good tip, Adam. I'm still browsing with IE occasionally but I may well switch to Firefox permanentky.

[tallorder]

Dear El Presidente,

I have taken your sage advice and dumped IE for Firefox. It's jolly good and I should have done it years ago... it even kindly imported all my favourites and stuff for me.... so I dumped Outlook Express for Thunderbird while I was at it.

That's two in the eye for you Gates.... and get a haricut!
Hurrah!