Posted on 12/31/2004 3:26:00 PM PST by BJungNan
My computer is set to advise me if a site I am going to is trying to download something onto my computer and gives me the option to download or cancel. I just went to Drudge's site and got a warning about an attempted download.
Drudge has been dumping at 3 to 7 spyware programs on my computer each time I visit - I've checked by clearing all spyware and then going to his site and checking again. That's bad enough. But, now to have direct downloads from from Drudge, that is not alright.
Likely it is from the same pop-ups and not specifically from Drudge's page, one of his advertisers. Some will say you a pop up blocker but those get in the way of the some of the functionality of sites I use on the net. I tolerate the pop-ups because it is less trouble to click them away than to turn on and off a pop-up stopper program.
The questions are these: Is Drudge being careful enough with the pop-ups he is facilitating through his site? Was there malicious code in the download that was attempted? Will Drudge address this? I have found no such instance on any other site I frequent except those in Asia that seem to love this practice.
One other question: Is anyone aware of any sort of malicious code that can be delivered through a site that wants to download to your computer just by visiting it?
"Long ago I quit going to Drudge because of all the pop-ups."
I did the same...even took them off my favorite list! Haven't been to Drudge in over 8 months...
"Is anyone aware of any sort of malicious code that can be delivered through a site that wants to download to your computer just by visiting it?"
Security firm Symantec Corp. is warning users of a newly discovered Trojan horse named Phel -- an anagram of the word help -- that attacks Windows XP. The Trojan is capable of remotely controlling a user's system even if the latest Windows XP Service Pack, SP2, has been installed.
The Trojan horse, distributed as an HTML file, attempts to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer's HTML Help Control component in all versions of Windows. The vulnerability was discovered in October.
Microsoft is actively investigating new public reports of a criminal attack, according to a Microsoft spokesperson.
For the exploit to succeed, an attacker would need to entice a user to visit a malicious Web site and then would have to place the Trojan horse on the user's machine. If the Trojan executes successfully, potentially malicious software could be downloaded and run on the user's system, the spokesperson said.
What's a popup?
(Proud Firefox user)
Thanks, I'm glad to know it wasn't just me. I can live with that and the cascading bookmark menu. Being able to open bookmarks and history in a new window is invaluable.
At work I can not even go to Drudge's page. Whatever he is trying to download locks up my Win2000 box. I am sure the IT dept has forbidden alot of his stuff. But I have to reboot if I go to Drudge from work.
At home, with FireFox, I have no problems. I scan for spyware frequently and viruses daily.
I understand he makes close to a million a year from advertisment from his site. Not bad pay if you can get it.
I'd like to thank you all for helping me in my new browser baptism -- I'm MOZILLA-ing, and free from the bondage of Internet Explorer!
Firefox works much faster on "thin"(don`t know if that is an appropriate term)sites.They load instantly like the high speed I have at work."Thick" sites seem to be equal or maybe slower than AOL.I think on AOL the page appears quicker even though nothing can be done with it.Again probably a perception issue.
I know I can switch from AOL but of course a pain to re-register on credit card sites etc.
I never use IE at home because the search engine is very small.ASK JEEVES one of the best I have found there.
Norton Internet Security has worked perfectly for me for a long time. Not one complaint here.
LMAO...You're welcome. :)
It's not Drudge's fault. Bill Gates is responsible for your problems.
By now, everyone should realize that Microsoft operating systems are hopelessly bad. Windows is low quality crap. Next time, get a better OS or you'll have noone to blame but yourself.
Dell bundles A LOT of third party software on their systems. Most of this software has an icon in the system tray down by the clock and each icon has a process associated with it.I suspect at least 30, if not more, of those 49 processes could be turned off permanently.
Check the Black Viper site mentioned previously. Lots of good stuff there.
Note that some hardware needs multiple background processes to run properly. For example, my ATI graphics card needs two processes, etc.
You look thinner...
Plus, if it's worth reading, someone will post it here.
;-)
For me, the perfect combo is Mozilla Firefox for 99% and for the 1% where the site only runs on IE - CookieWall! (www.analogx.com)
It won't let anything in - without your permission!
The market will ultimately compel Microsoft to have the task manager actually explain what all of those little functions are going on, and what is actually happening under the start up.
Microsoft is not invincible to market forces. It is already happening.
The basic google popup blocker went nuts, and I got three low rated advertising cookies.(which I deleted)
No spyware or anything else got through.
I don't like drudge anyway, but he has a right to make a buck for what he does, I suppose.
I suppose.
I personally have the standard Mozilla browser, Mozilla Firefox, ( my default) and IE available.. ( I can't get my brother to stop using IE.. da**n him ! )
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