Don't Visit Websites With Microsoft IE
from the as-if-you-didn't-know-this-was-coming... dept
It really is getting ridiculously dangerous these days for anyone to keep using Microsoft IE. People always talk about the day when scammers will start to use "zero day exploits" to smash through security holes before they're patched, and that's clearly already happening. The latest move, which is fairly advanced (and many assume is being done by organized crime groups in Eastern Europe) is to hack into a variety of popular company websites and install some code to exploit a known IE vulnerability that has not been patched by Microsoft. Once this is done, any IE user visiting any of these websites (which they obviously would assume to be safe based on the companies involved) ends up with some of the most insidious keylogging spyware. The article won't list the companies, but from the descriptions they sound like sites anyone might visit on a regular basis (banks, auction sites and comparison shopping engines). This sounds quite similar to the Interland hack from last year, but could impact many more users.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
surfers are safe
Don't get me wrong, I do use and prefer Firefox. There's just been a lot of misunderstanding about this current development, and only because CNET, Slashdot, Techdirt, aren't reading the Internet Storm Center article carefully.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: surfers are safe
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What if
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if
So you got any concrete info to these insidious bugs that we can look up?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if
But e.g.
http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/
talks about a "firefox security hole", dated June 15th. If these other browsers are so bulletproof, how come they keep coming out with new versions?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What if
I just wanted you to back your statement.
However I DO believe that Mozilla fixes its holes way faster than IE *AND* that on average its holes are way smaller than IE which basically lets everyone run roughshod over the whole OS.
You will note that the hole I believe you are mentionning isn't Mozilla-only AND that its been fixed already in Firefox.
Anyway...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ActiveX
[ link to this | view in chronology ]