Securty expert: Microsoft Internet Explorer ‘just cannot be trusted, use alternate browser’
Friday, July 02, 2004 - 07:42 AM EST"Using Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser to surf the Internet has become a marked risk - even with the latest security patches installed. That's the upshot of the discovery of yet another Internet Explorer security hole being exploited by intruders bent on swiping personal information from unwitting Internet users," Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz report for USA Today. "The SANS Institute Internet Storm Center issued an alert this week about pop-up ads designed to download a program that keeps track any time a PC user clicks to the log-in page of 50 financial institutions worldwide. The program captures log-in information and sends it to another Web site, before the bank can encrypt the data."
"In a similar attack discovered last week, intruders sprinkled invisible coding that accomplished much the same thing on Microsoft Web servers that serve up hundreds of high-traffic commercial Web sites. Both attacks appear to exploit security holes in Internet Explorer for which Microsoft has not yet issued a patch, says SANS researcher Tom Liston," Acohido and Swartz report. "Security experts say the two new attacks likely have been in operation for weeks, infecting tens of thousands of PCs. Given the history of cyberthreats, they are bracing for copycat assaults. 'Internet Explorer's track record is such that the software just cannot be trusted right now,' says Jeremiah Grossman, CEO of WhiteHat Security."
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Retake: If you're a Mac user still slogging along with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (and our stats tell us there are still some of you out there), are you crazy? Please get with the program. It's called Safari, it's from Apple, and you can download it for free.
Requirements for Safari 1.2:
- Mac OS X 10.3 or later
- Any Macintosh computer
-Requirements for Safari 1.0:
- Mac OS X 10.2 or later
- Any Macintosh computer
More information and download link for Safari here.
MacDailyNews Note: You can use the Safari Debug Menu* to set Safari's User Agent to one of many different browser choices if you need to access sites that are "blocking" Safari. Set your User Agent to "Windows MSIE 6.0" and you'll be amazed at how many of these misguided sites will work with Safari.
*To turn on Safari's Debug Menu, Quit Safari, launch Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
Launch Safari and the Debug Menu will be active.
To turn off Safari's Debug Menu, Quit Safari, launch Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 0
Launch Safari and the Debug Menu will be inactive.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Security firm warns of new Internet Explorer flaw, advises 'use a different browser' - July 01, 2004
Average Windows PC infested with 28 spyware programs - June 30, 2004
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software - May 16, 2003
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please this is not news, this is a Daily routine... News is when security firms declare Explorer the safest browser on the planet