Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

[adrian]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3840101.stm

Basically, major websites with a malicious code in it will cause the downloading and installation of a program that will open a backdoor for hackers to take over your computer. If you are using Internet Explorer, then you are at risk to this kind of attacks.

Solution? Get Mozilla Firefox or Netscape Navigator.

Some companies are in the process of making detection program changes to catch/patch this up (Antivirus people, microsoft, etc.) but its too early to know if it'll work.

[dick]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Dump your Windoze machine and buy a Mac.

[mel]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Exactly! I use a Power Mac G4, Mac OSX and the Safari web browser.

[adrian]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Dump your Windoze machine and buy a Mac.

That'll be a $1000 solution to everything right there

[DaFerret]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Dump your Windoze machine and buy a Mac.

Give me a grand half for the "Convert DaFerret to support Mac" fund and you gots yourself a deal mate!

[pzarquon]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Man, I remember my days as a smug Mac owner, when, "Buy a Mac!" was the default reply to any warning of a virus attack or other OS exploit. One of these days, I'll be back in the fold...

But for now, on my income, I'm glad I was able to outfit my family with four better-than-decent PCs for what I would've spent on one entry-level Mac. If you're careful with your setup and your users are careful online, the problems are minimal.

Certainly, an exploit of Internet Explorer makes me think throwing out the whole PC is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If your browser is the problem, change browsers -- everyone I know has converted happily to Firefox, and even as a pre-1.0 release, it rocks.

[mel]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Man, I remember my days as a smug Mac owner, when, "Buy a Mac!" was the default reply to any warning of a virus attack or other OS exploit. One of these days, I'll be back in the fold...

I am sure everyone in the Mac world will welcome you back.

But for now, on my income, I'm glad I was able to outfit my family with four better-than-decent PCs for what I would've spent on one entry-level Mac. If you're careful with your setup and your users are careful online, the problems are minimal.

You know there is nothing wrong with PCs. What they offer are a lot of options to run operating systems other than what comes bundled with Microsoft. Certainly one of the major obstacles for people who want to use an alternate OS on a PC is the fact that operating systems such as Linux and Unix are traditionally difficult to install, and may not have all the applications or be fully compatible with the dominant Windows world. It is too bad because it seems that any OS other than Windows that you can run on a PC has way less security risks, viruses and worms when compared to what's out there for Windows.

I've owned a couple of PCs in my past... one was an ancient 386 that only ran a version of DOS and the other is a broken IBM Aptiva that I cannot get to boot out of safe mode.

If I had the space and some extra $$$ to throw around I would consider getting a fairly powerful and cheap PC and use it to run a version of Linux or have it run BeOS (which can also be run on some older Power Macs)....

Linux and Unix can also be run on Macs too, but with distributions created for the Power PC chip.

As some of you know, Unix is the shell that underlies Mac OSX.

I always tell people that if you can't afford the latest and greatest Mac, there are always other people who can, and many of them are getting rid of slightly older Macs like G3s and G4s of various vintages and designs which still can do a lot of stuff many of today's Macs can do. The used market has a lot of these older Macs.

Certainly, an exploit of Internet Explorer makes me think throwing out the whole PC is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If your browser is the problem, change browsers -- everyone I know has converted happily to Firefox, and even as a pre-1.0 release, it rocks.

Yes, changing browsers is a viable option except for those times where you hit upon websites that require you to use MS Explorer.

[pzarquon]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

I am sure everyone in the Mac world will welcome you back.

Yeah... If only I could stop building websites, maybe I could afford one! I wouldn't even go for a G5. A nice TiBook or a flat-panel iMac with DVD burner would suffice. I did have an old Mac for a while, the IIsi I ran my BBS on, but I sold it to my friend on the Mainland, who wanted to complete his vintage Mac collection (he even has a working Mac Plus!).

I've messed with Linux... RedHat, Mandrake, even the ever-cool bootable-CD Knoppix. (Stick a CD in a PC, and run Linux right away!) I could get it to do everything I wanted to do, for the most part, but frankly keeping all the installs and components straight was too much of a pain... and sadly, to work in business circles, it helps to suffer through the slings and arrows of Microsoft's office suite (although the conversions that products like Open Office can do are getting pretty good).

Yes, changing browsers is a viable option except for those times where you hit upon websites that require you to use MS Explorer.

Then again, on a Mac, you're likely to hit on the occasional site that doesn't agree with your browsers (or even OS) as well.

It's not easy to escape Microsoft's clutches...

[mel]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

Yeah... If only I could stop building websites, maybe I could afford one! I wouldn't even go for a G5. A nice TiBook or a flat-panel iMac with DVD burner would suffice. I did have an old Mac for a while, the IIsi I ran my BBS on, but I sold it to my friend on the Mainland, who wanted to complete his vintage Mac collection (he even has a working Mac Plus!).

I have a working Mac Plus too. Good fun to roll out for playing those old black and white games and messing with MacPaint.

I have a poll going on at my Macintosh website, and so far none of the few people who have bothered with the poll use a G5. The site of course seems to attract people with older Macs, many of which are still in use. Some people even go as far as setting up web servers with Mac Plusses and other ancient models.

I think the dual booting G4 desktops (and to a lesser degree G4 laptops) are the best Mac models released in recent years. They give someone like me the opportunity to run both Mac OSX and Mac OS9 on the same machine... and if I want to torture myself, also run Unix and Linux.

I've messed with Linux... RedHat, Mandrake, even the ever-cool bootable-CD Knoppix. (Stick a CD in a PC, and run Linux right away!) I could get it to do everything I wanted to do, for the most part, but frankly keeping all the installs and components straight was too much of a pain... and sadly, to work in business circles, it helps to suffer through the slings and arrows of Microsoft's office suite (although the conversions that products like Open Office can do are getting pretty good).

I have a Gentoo Linux Live CD that allow me to do the same with my Power Mac G4. Been a while since I ran that.

I think for casual users like myself, Linux is something for me to mess with... similar to what I do with the underlying Unix shell that is on my Mac... dump myself into CLI mode and mess with it without trying to mess it up (usually takes root access so a massive accident should not happen).

Then again, on a Mac, you're likely to hit on the occasional site that doesn't agree with your browsers (or even OS) as well.

Tell me about it. The Macintouch website keeps us Mac people updated with those websites that marginalize your Mac.... I've ran into several websites where they don' t even accept the Mac OS version of Microsoft Explorer! Talk about OS centric! I hate Microsoft.

[dick]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

I rarely use Explorer (just on principle). I use Netscape primarily at home and Safari on my laptop. Safari seems to open those "Explorer-only" pages pretty well.

[adrian]

We can use IE again!!!

Last night, I received news that they've stopped the malicious code from spreading.

It is safe to use Internet Explorer again, but now we'll wait until someone exploits something similar.

[easTTriver]

Re: We can use IE again!!!

Last night, I received news that they've stopped the malicious code from spreading.

It is safe to use Internet Explorer again, but now we'll wait until someone exploits something similar.

there is a critical update issued by microsoft in April that addresses this vulnerability. I suggest you apply the security patch from their website.

[pzarquon]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

I have no idea which exploit we're talking about anymore. There were three in the last two weeks! The one I've been watching is the one where a fake GIF image file turns out to be a cloaked executable and keylogger... deployed thanks to Microsoft's built-in "helper application" thingamabob!

If you have to use Windows, and have to use MSIE, you might as well make Windows Update your start page already. Sheesh.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Stop use Internet Explorer: Major internet attack in progress!!

I'm still using IE 5.5, so the April fix doesn't work, as I understand it. On the other hand, maybe the exploit doesn't work on IE 5.5 either! (I doubt that).

I found a couple of interesting items regarding this glitch and posted about them today:

http://www.linkmeister.com/blog/archives/000962.html