The U.S. government advising stop using IE

Yeah i used to use IE but after all those trojans on the websites, I swithed to firefox, which is good.Only use IE for Windows Update.

Let me be the first to suggest MYIE2 www.myie2.com...

It's exactly like IE but 10x more powerful. I never though I would use another browswer but this one is a gem! Its Freeware btw.

[edit on 29-6-2004 by d1k]

Yup, IE was suppassed long ago...

Just a plug for Opera7.5, awesome......
www.opera.com

This is just getting so ugly for Microsoft. You may not recall but a while back the Dept. of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team also issued a similar warning for MS's integrated e-mail software, Outlook Express. US-CERT recommended disabling a lot of features or just use something else.

www.kb.cert.org...

Originally posted by d1k
Let me be the first to suggest MYIE2 www.myie2.com...

[edit on 29-6-2004 by d1k]

Correct me if I'm wrong, d1k, but isn't MYIE2 just a shell on top of Internet Explorer?

Internet Explorer can be made more secure by disabling ActiveX, Java & scripting - or at least setting these to "Prompt". Opera has no ActiveX, which is just one of the reasons that it's less susceptible to exploits.

They will attack whichever becomes the most popular. Once IE is not the most popular and Microsoft is not touting their fight against hackers, then the other will be vulnerable.

I like the way in which you say "ONCE IE is not the most popular", JCMinJapan - you give me hope!

Seriously, I hope that more people try other browsers. The alternatives generally have a smaller footprint, use less resources, & are much more secure. And once you use tabbed browsing, most of you will never go back.

More security flaw reports for Microsoft?

How many NSA, DIA, etc backdoors do they program into their POS software?!

goodness gracious!

what? do you have a better explanation for such faulty programming from a multi-billion dollar company that specializes in personal management softwre?

There are many millions of lines of code that go to make up each flavour of Windows. And several Windows versions have been pretty well rushed to market in little more than beta stage. WinME was heavily criticised for this.

Microsoft has responderd to criticism. WinXP installed with NTFS, & not FAT32 filesystem, is said to be the best & most secure Win version yet. Its Sevice Pack2 will enhance its security too.

Everyone should have at least a software firewall & set it up properly - there are free ones. Same with anti-virus, you'd be surprised at how many people all over the world either don't have A/V proggie and/or don't update the virus definitions at least weekly. We have to be pro-active with our own computer security.

You have to remember that it's the most popular O/S in the world, therefore the easiest to write code for & also the most targeted by hackers.

Originally posted by Bastet
Microsoft has responderd to criticism. WinXP installed with NTFS, & not FAT32 filesystem, is said to be the best & most secure Win version yet. Its Sevice Pack2 will enhance its security too.

Personally, I despise NTFS. I regret using my computer every day since I formatted my HD in the NTFS manner. It's slow, wastes valuable clusters and sectors within the HD, AND that indexing service isn't worth a thing. I don't see the added security in that file system, nor do I see added reliability as I still have to reinstall my OS every few months or so due to that wonderful blue screen at bootup that translates into "you made a boo-boo, and you're screwed. Please contact a computer guru or do the tedious work yourself" in which case I am that guru

do you work for MS or something? That's pretty good propaganda if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps in their marketing department?

When I was about 14, i was enthusiastic over microsoft... now that I am older...

Originally posted by AlnilamOmega


do you work for MS or something? That's pretty good propaganda if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps in their marketing department?

Ha - I'm doubled up with laughter here at that! I despise the Redmond Beast. I don't use IE, have regedited Outhouse Express off my machine, & use no Win software at all. I was just trying to be fair. I'm not cluey enough yet to go Linux. My fave O/S is RIP, due in part to M$oft, but I still use it on a separate partition, the fastest, easiest & most stable you can imagine, but it's dead.

BTW, I'm using Win98SE - & before you laugh, my last clean install was over 18 months ago, no BSOD either. If you wanna save yourself the format hassle, get into O/S imaging - several good proggies for this, and you'll never havta re-install again.

ALSO, I determine the size of my clusters with my imaging proggie, so there's no waste. Not sure whether this can be done witth NTFS though.

Good find Romeo,

I'm a big fan of Microsoft myself, been using their products (windows, compilers, tools, apps) for years, but IE does have some issues. The company I work for uses MS tools almost exclusively.

I might have to take a look at firefox or one of the other alternatives mentioned in this thread.

One problem I have with other browsers, is having to worry about how a page renders on each browser, at least sticking with IE I can be (relatively) sure that it will always work right for the majority of users.

I hate having to build sites/software for the lowest common denominator...

Its to easy to just blame everything on Microsoft. The online banking and credit card companies have to take part of the blame as well.

There are much better ways of entering secure details so they cannot be keylogged and simply forward by a trojen or virus.

If you had to select the 4th 6th 8th 10th digit of your credit card number from drop down boxes instead of typing them all these keylogging problems wouldnt exsist. Or even clicking an online keypad that entered the numbers. All these could be ecrypted to prevent other types of logging.

Also everyone who is connected to the internet should have antivirus software installed, and if you dont. I have no sympathy.

There will be just as big vunrabilities in other browsers, and the virus writers will target these when more and more of you use them. Its a game of numbers.

SP2 RC2 solves all these MS security vunrabilities, and im sure banks will be removing themselves from the online domain soon and going back to there own custom software as they did in the early days.

Andy

After IE f**ked up my computer several times, I decided to use MYIE2. It's a nice, easy-to use browser which greatly surpasses IE. Then I decided to try out Opera. I have to say, I'm quite happy with it. It's about 10 times faster than IE with countless added features. And the best part--it's free. I shall try out Firefox...

JCMinJapan,

They (whoever THEY ARE) probably will target whatever is the most popular browser. But on the other hand, it seems to me that hackers and exploiters, have it out for Microsoft, and would use whatever browser, to get at your MS/OS, and the other microsoft apps that you run.

I recommended that Our company experiment with alternative browsers about a month ago. I was mostly Poo-pooed.
However I WAS immediately asked,
how the "updating" and Patching was going..LOL

I Think we could get away without IE altogether. we are doing some updates by "pushing them" to our workstations. We can't do them all that way, yet.

Switching to an alternative browser will definitely improve your security, especially as only IE uses ActiveX. Those who advocate using My IE2 would do well to remember that it's totally based on IE, & is therefore prone to the same vulnerabilities - sorry to give you the bad news.

However, Internet Explorer is "built in" to Windows, & whether you use IE or not, you MUST keep it patched & updated, otherwise your whole system could be at risk. And IE's security options directly impact on Outlook & O.Xpress's security too.

Mozilla & Firefox are free. Firefox has no email or news client, so is faster than Mozilla. Firefox is still a beta release, but is said to be very stable. Both of these offer tabbed browsing, & so does Opera.

There are very few webpages that won't display correctly in Opera, & in those cases, just use your fully patched IE [preferably with ActiveX & Java disabled or set to "Prompt".

hackers have it out for everyone not just MS (although they are a common target simply because almost everyone uses them)

Lots of webservers have problems with supporting JAVA on other browsers than IE. Ive tried opera, firefox and netscape and there all s*h*i*t*e at compatibility with JAVA and activex.

MS will sort it out with SP2 this summer, but no trojen is any use if you have AV software installed and upto date.

Also another browser wont help you if another sasser or msblast comes along now will it. Lets hope MS will keep to the main aim of security

Install SP2 RC2, its worth trying out. Built in firewall will stop any unwanted connections. MS are holding back on this cause they want to get it exactly right. But its dam good for MS and good to know im already protected against these IE vunrabilities. Or are you all running pirated copies of XP in wich case you cant moan about MS when you dont even pay for it. lol

[edit on 30-6-2004 by Andy Robins]

You have to remember, Andy Robins, that not everyone has installed XP's Service Pack 2 yet, though I hope they soon will. Prior to its release, the built-in XP firewall only worked one-way - it stopped inbound connections when necessary, but not outbound, so if a Trojan got into your system, it could still connect to an attacker's computer.

Also not all Trojans will be foiled by an A/V program. You really need a dedicated firewall for this purpose. Plus the garden-variety user is too often unaware of what other services are running on his/her system, and XP has quite a few unnecessary ones running in thebackground. If you want a link to this, I'll provide a URL, but it's a LONG read.

Opera displays Java OK for me, but I guess your mileage may vary. Opera is standards-compliant, IE isn't. And I tend to complain to webmasters whose sites are not compliant, & some of them do fix things up, but I do know what you're saying. ActiveX may have some uses - if you trust the site. I avoid ActiveX like the plague due to its inherent dangers.

For a simple IE security check, visit browsercheck.qualys.com...

that not everyone has installed XP's Service Pack 2 yet,

Quite simply because it hasnt been released yet. This isnt to forget that any ISP you signed up with will advise their users to ensure. A. They have a suitable firewall installed either software or Hardware. B. Upto date Antivirus software installed.

Also not all Trojans will be foiled by an A/V program

That is very true, but you will find that all the latest trojens that are causing the current problems are all detected by symantec, sophos, trend-micro & AVG. New ones are quickly picked up and added and if your protected by one of the above your chances of being hacked or keylogged are much reduced.

Lets also not forget the people doing this are criminals doing a crime, and the goverments need to be doing more to keep up with technology & catch these cyber criminals. As well as the banks need better systems to prevent also. But what do they care their insured against this loss. its us end users who foot the bill with higher charges and overall more expensive banking.