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Internet Explorer major flaw found - news flash

Lavawalker

Lavawalker

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Fire Sparkz Lavawalker
Hi,

For those who use MS Internet Explorer

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

Internet Explorer security alert

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users
Users of the world's most common web browser have been advised to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Microsoft is investigating the problem and preparing an emergency software patch to resolve it, it says.

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users.

"Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer," said the firm in a security advisory alert about the flaw.

Microsoft says it has detected attacks against version seven of the browser - its most widely used edition.

But the company warned that other versions were also potentially vulnerable.

As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since last week to take advantage of the security flow, said antivirus software maker Trend Micro.

The websites have been mostly serving up programs that steal computer game passwords, but the flaw could be "adopted by more financially motivated criminals", a Trend Micro security researcher said on Monday.
Click to expand...
 
At school = Uses firefox, IE slows down on those computers for some reason :scratch2:


At home = Uses IE since forever, doesn't matter cause computer is so fscked up that it can't really get any worse :rolleyes:
 
IE is full of bugs, news at 11 !!1 OMG, LOL!!1

On a more serious note, unfortunately some monkeys^Wcough web developers think that standards are meant to be broken instead of followed and design the web pages with IE (as opposed to standards) in mind.
 
Newsflash 2
Open source web browsers found to have 1 major secruity flaw - its open source code !

if you wanted to attack some software wouldnt the source code be very handy ?
 
F I R E F O X

:wtg:
 
O P E R A

:wtg:

is this a "name as many webbrowsers as you can" game?
 
Wistrel said:
O P E R A

:wtg:

is this a "name as many webbrowsers as you can" game?
Click to expand...

yes, opera is The browser. fox is on fire from tries to catch up with it and IE... is that the type of ketchup? :scratch2:


J.
 
i can see no reason for using Internet Explorer in the first place.
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
i can see no reason for using Internet Explorer in the first place.
Click to expand...

To use ALL of your PC's resources!
To crash to your desktop ad quickly as possible!
To have a cool blue Icon on the dark grey background!

So many reasons, I just can't list them all.

To be honest, I've been using Firefox as soon as it came out and have had little or no problem up to now. From what we can all ready from the net, security wise, FF seems to be up to date and reliable, my PC seems to handle friefox much better than IE, FF was the first to have cool features (tags for example) and I couldnt see a reason to go back to IE.


Dont stick your finger in the gorilla.
 
hmmm

Well most people that know a thing or 2 about computers switched to firefox right away as they realised that microsoft IE its total rubbish in the first place.

i have 1 word for this post and that is.

FIREFOX
 
dry_martini said:
Newsflash 2
Open source web browsers found to have 1 major secruity flaw - its open source code !

if you wanted to attack some software wouldnt the source code be very handy ?
Click to expand...

er, and if you wanted to fix the flaw, the source code is essential. do you get it now?
 
Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users
Click to expand...
Wrong. It is used by a small majority because it comes as the default browser with windows. Here are some recent statitstics:
Week starting Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sept. 7 Sept. 15 Net Change
IE 72.39% 71.03% 71.24% 71.48% -0.91%
Firefox 19.54% 19.78% 19.35% 19.42% -0.13%
Safari 6.27% 6.67% 6.95% 6.73% 0.45%
Chrome ----- 0.67% 0.85% 0.77% 0.77%
Opera 0.74% 0.75% 0.70% 0.68% -0.06%
Netscape 0.77% 0.83% 0.67% 0.66% -0.11%
Source: Net Applications
 
davidgr1200 said:
Wrong. It is used by a small majority because it comes as the default browser with windows. Here are some recent statitstics:
Week starting Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sept. 7 Sept. 15 Net Change
IE 72.39% 71.03% 71.24% 71.48% -0.91%
Firefox 19.54% 19.78% 19.35% 19.42% -0.13%
Safari 6.27% 6.67% 6.95% 6.73% 0.45%
Chrome ----- 0.67% 0.85% 0.77% 0.77%
Opera 0.74% 0.75% 0.70% 0.68% -0.06%
Netscape 0.77% 0.83% 0.67% 0.66% -0.11%
Source: Net Applications
Click to expand...

I call 72% a big majority :silly2:
 
Aaaaarrrgh! It messed the format up. Here is just one week:

Week starting Sept. 15
IE.................... 71.48%
Firefox............. 19.42%
Safari............... 6.73%
Chrome............ 0.77%
Opera............... 0.68%
Netscape........... 0.66%
Source: Net Applications
 
dry_martini said:
Newsflash 2

if you wanted to attack some software wouldnt the source code be very handy ?
Click to expand...

And I say thank you for the free security audit.
No software is free of bugs. The problem is the speed of the fix.
With IE you are bound to wait for MS...
 
MS Internet Explorer is the major flaw itself. Firefox for the win :cool:

ff-eats-ie.gif


BruuD said:
I call 72% a big majority :silly2:
Click to expand...
A million lemmings can't be wrong :yup:
 
I cant get youtube to work properly in FF, so I use IE. Also Opera or Chrome sometimes, but they all have issues.
 
Nighthawk said:
At home = Uses IE since forever, doesn't matter cause computer is so fscked up that it can't really get any worse :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

With that level of security awareness....

Hope (for your own sake) you never buy anything on the net, or try use EU from your home computer :)

Hope also for your own sake you don't store _any_ files you would like to keep on it.

If your home computer sends any spam to me, I'll come home to you and put a sledgehammer through it, ok? ;)

And don't be sad when the police comes and gets your computer for being a child porno hub...

Or asks you why you bought all this crazy stuff with stolen credit cards and had it shipped to africa. :laugh:

Ok, bit extreme maybe, but point is lots of more (and a lot more serious) things can happen then your computer just becoming "unusable"...
 
Last edited:
well what can i say; thanks for posting this =) <3
 
As interesting as it is reading everyone's browser preferences in this thread it really isn't very helpful.

The fact is 70+% of the population do use IE - whether through preference, ease, or the corporate policies of their employers; and it would be good if someone, preferably MA, could actually make a statement as to exactly how this affects people - if at all. Just saying don't use IE use firefox is not going to be a practical solution for many people.

For example is it safe to log into the game as long as you are using your GC? How about the website login?

I know a lot of people here are pretty IT savvy - but it's not a requirement to play, so when something like this happens and someone brings it to our attention (thanks Lava) it would be really good if people that know could post some pointers on what is best practise - one of which could be switch browsers of course ;)
 
This is nothing new under the sun. So many people use Windows, and IE, that most of the viruses/trojans/exploits/security breaks are designed to affect those people. There's more people trying to bring down IE than browsers. There'd be more attempts on FF if they had a share equal to IE. Most of the time the assbags who write that stuff want to inflict as much damage as possible, preferably billions, not inconvenience a few million. A large percent of the world's computer users probably couldn't care less which browser they use and don't give any thought to using something other than what their computer came with.

Personally, when it comes to the Windows platform, I use as little from one source as possible. But I'm paranoid and see the trend of "everything integrated together, all working through the internet" as the opening of an amusement park for hackers and criminals. It's easy to fence in your backyard, but a lot more difficult to do the same with your entire county and have it be anywhere near as effective.

But as far as naming browsers, Ice Weasel all the way!
 
Qweeg said:
and it would be good if someone, preferably MA, could actually make a statement as to exactly how this affects people - if at all.
Click to expand...

Just skimmed the dutch version of MS site and can't see the flaw mentionned. Although, they do have a disturbing long list of previous fixes making me wonder how they were ever allowed to release such software in the first place :scratch2:

I use them all ... If your system is properly configured there isn't anything to worry about.
 
aridash said:
er, and if you wanted to fix the flaw, the source code is essential. do you get it now?
Click to expand...

i get it now; if i can fix it , i can hack it : and thats where open source is so popular

:D
 
Somehow I knew people were going to start yammering on about Firefox. Mostly people who don't really keep up with information security news...

Firefox tops list of 12 most vulnerable apps.

Yeah, IE sucks, but so does Firefox.

I contend every piece of software sucks equally, each in its own way.
 
i just tried to download firefox off the mazilla site and the file was corrupted
 
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