Posted on 04/28/2014 6:24:40 PM PDT by markomalley
It's not often that the US or UK governments weigh in on the browser wars, but a new Internet Explorer vulnerability that affects all major versions of the browser from the past decade has forced it to raise an alarm: Stop using IE.
The zero-day exploit, the term given to a previously unknown, unpatched flaw, allows attackers to install malware on your computer without your permission. That malware could be used to steal personal data, track online behavior, or gain control of the computer. Security firm FireEye, which discovered the bug, said that the flaw is being used with a known Flash-based exploit technique to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Microsoft's Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.
While the Computer Emergency Readiness Team in England and the US regularly issue browser advisories, this is one of the few times that the CERT team has recommended that people avoid using a specific browser.
FireEye recommends that if you can't switch browsers, then you disable Internet Explorer's Flash plug-in. You also can use IE with Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit security app, but that will not be as secure as simply switching browsers.
Microsoft and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Statistics vary as to how many people actually use Internet Explorer. NetMarketShare puts the total around 55 percent of the desktop browser market, while competitor StatCounter says that 22.58 percent of people use IE. While the disparity is large, in either case the flaw affects a huge number of browsers being actively used.
its not a perfect world.
Been disabled on all my machines forever. Don't run IE with Flash enabled. Wait, they just said the same thing.
I'm not very tech-savvy either. However, when you right-click on "Shockwave Flash Object" and select "Disable" from the menu, I think that some animations embedded in websites won't play. Which really is not that big of a loss. You also won't be able to play some internet games.
You can go directly to the Adobe website and upgrade your flash player, instead of clicking the pop-up.
I once got a a virus that made web browsing almost impossible, among other things. My antivirus didn’t find it. I ended up having to Google fixes (fun, when the browser is taking 5 minutes to load up because of a virus). I managed to delete the virus and fix some of the registry changes it had made, but I was never able to get that computer to work right again. The virus had made it impossible to log in as an administrator on that computer.
I have three browsers on my computer at work. Not one of them works equally well for all websites. And MSIE is glitching so badly that I may have to put in a help ticket. I see the IT guys on a frequent enough basis as it is...
bkmk #6
When I write ‘works well’, I mean it permits accomplishing the task; ‘well’ was, well, an unintentional adjective.
Frankly, I don’t know what the heck they did to 10 & 11 but they’re both so buggy I’ll be a permanent transplant if I find something else I can use personally. We also keep at least 2 browsers for that purpose. Mozilla displays frames in one that are unusable. Just yesterday I discovered the login button on one of our websites was nonfunctional under Pale Moon; oops. IE...geez...so many of our task require multiple tabs/windows on the dual screens that IE’s performance is causing a depression in my desk from lost form filling, as my forehead hits the desk every time I see the underlying tabs ‘contract’ I know I’m about to see the dreaded “Internet Explorer has stopped working”...that’s just off the top of my head with no coffee.
‘Glitching’ is putting it mildly...
Even better...
or Firefox?
I thought we were supposed to be boycotting Firefox?
For some Freepers I guess that was just the boycott of the week. Short memories around here.
and a 14.4 baud modem....
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