Serious security flaw found in IE

[Angelinity]

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

I stopped using IE over a year ago... there are several smart alternatives, including:

Firefox
Safari
Google Chrome

[lvcabbie]

I've been using Opera for a couple of years now and like it far better than IE!

[brokenfingers]

Wow, I didn't even know it was still around!

[Tirjasdyn]

Wow, I didn't even know it was still around!


The security flaw or IE?

IE has ALWAYS been one huge mess of security flaws. But then it's always been one huge mess of flaws. They don't fix these problems...MS has a history of just hiding them until their found again.

Irritating really.

[Angelinity]

Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the "underlying vulnerability" was present in all versions of the browser.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.


Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."

But Microsoft counselled against taking such action.

"I cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw," said John Curran, head of Microsoft UK's Windows group.

He added: "We're trying to get this resolved as soon as possible."


...hm i wonder why?

[benbradley]

I'm shocked - shocked, I tell you - to hear that a Microsoft product has a security flaw!

[Jersey Chick]

It's funny - I just downloaded Firefox last night - and I'm still trying to get used to it, and figure out exactly what's what...

I must be like - psychic or something. ;)

[lvcabbie]

I've also used Firefox and it's a decent browser.
I haven't used the MS email program (can't even remember its name) for years. I'm on Cox and theirs works just fine.

[Williebee]

Been a Firefox fan for a long time. Lately, I'm playing with Google's Chrome.

And liking it a lot.

[KTC]

Kevin, waiting to see the PC/MAC commercial for this one.

[RJK]

I'm not going to wave the flag for Microsoft, Bill Gates has enough money to hire people to do that. MS has its share of bugs and is frequently hit by viruses and worms. The reason is not because of the structure of their programs, but because they are the most popular programs on the market.
The low-lifes out there who think it's funny to spread viruses, pick on MS because they can affect more people than by building a virus that would affect Firefox or Opera, or Safari. I imagine that when Google begins to increase in popularity they will get hit with a virus.
The other thing you should think about, is that MS has literally legions of programmers. These programmers immediately go to work to fix the vulnerability that a new virus or worm has uncovered. Do the makers of these other programs have that response capability?

[MattW]

I use IE at work because they prevent me from using anything else.

I've been using Firefox for near 6 years now - I don't even keep up with the newest features, but it's still a million times better than IE.

[kuwisdelu]

I'm not going to wave the flag for Microsoft, Bill Gates has enough money to hire people to do that. MS has its share of bugs and is frequently hit by viruses and worms. The reason is not because of the structure of their programs, but because they are the most popular programs on the market.

That's only one reason. Ultimately, the structure of MS's programs isn't great either.

The low-lifes out there who think it's funny to spread viruses, pick on MS because they can affect more people than by building a virus that would affect Firefox or Opera, or Safari. I imagine that when Google begins to increase in popularity they will get hit with a virus.

People don't make viruses to affect web browsers--they make them to affect operating systems. If you're on Windows, you can get the same virus through IE, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. A web browser generally isn't going to protect you from viruses so much as it's going to try to protect you from trojans, hacking, and phishing.

Google has no operating system (other than Android...but that's a phone OS) to hit with a virus.

The other thing you should think about, is that MS has literally legions of programmers. These programmers immediately go to work to fix the vulnerability that a new virus or worm has uncovered. Do the makers of these other programs have that response capability?

Well, Gecko (Firefox) and Webkit (Safari/Google Chrome) are both open-source projects. That means every programmer in the world can potentially fix whatever vulnerability has been found. So, these other programmers have millions more programmers to respond. Webkit and Gecko are both updated nightly (these nightly builds aren't incorporated in the major public releases as quickly, but are available to them) so they any vulnerability can potentially be fix in less than 24 hours.

[Carmy]

Thanks, Kuwisdelu--the voice of reason.