German Watchdog Warns of INTERNET EXPLORER BREACH

GERMAN WATCHDOG WARNS OF INTERNET EXPLORER BREACH

hosted.a p.org

The German government agency overseeing IT-safety is warning of a security breach in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and recommending people use other browsers until the problem is fixed.
It warns the code to attack computers running on Windows XP or Windows 7 operating systems through the browser is freely available online and might therefore spread rapidly.

The agency says users of Internet Explorer versions 7, 8 or 9 should switch to alternative browsers until Microsoft updates its browser's security

(visit the link for the full news article)

A heads up to the ATS community. If you are using IE currently - close out and use an alternative browser.

I'll add more to this as information comes in.

Some alternatives:

Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Iron - Chrome code without Google connections
Safari for PC
Seamonkey

Surf safe folks!

~Heff

hosted.a p.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Hefficide


Thanks for bringing that to our attention!

Very good info to know.
Thank you very much.

You shouldn't be using IE in the first place.

Don't use Google Chrome

FireFox is fine & even better is Seamonkey another Mozilla program.

Opera is fine, haven't used it but am unaware of major flaws.

Originally posted by SpearMint
You shouldn't be using IE in the first place.

In before someone says you shouldn't be using IE i- ... damnit!

I think the safer approach is not to put your personal information on the internet in the first place. It's maybe over the top, but I use a small laptop for any online transactions, and it only goes online when I need to do those things and only goes to the sites required to complete the transaction. Other than that its used for holding some notes and writing.

I may also be mad paranoid, wear an awesome tin foil hat, and collect tinned food for the coming apocolypse though.

Side note: security vulnerabilites aren't a Microsoft exclusive nor are freely available .code etc ... for messing with people online. I imagine steps will be taken when patch-Tuesday comes.

Really the worst trap you can fall into is assuming that one web browser is better than the rest with the number of agendas involved.

FTR: After my 16 month Internet hiatus, which ended about a month ago, give or take, I found myself in a major conundrum. I'd been a huge Firefox fan but discovered the new version was bleeding memory on me and literally slowing my computer down to a crawl ( my system is aging and I am running on far less RAM than newer machines use ) - so I began, in earnest, to find a new alternative. After fumbling through several ( Chrome and Opera included ) I landed on Iron - because of a tip from one of our resident tech guys, forum moderator ArMap. And I've loved it so far. It's fast, doesn't use a lot of resident memory, is easily customized, and allows me to add on all of the Chrome based extensions I choose to use.

~Heff

Originally posted by Hefficide

FTR: After my 16 month Internet hiatus, which ended about a month ago, give or take, I found myself in a major conundrum. I'd been a huge Firefox fan but discovered the new version was bleeding memory on me and literally slowing my computer down to a crawl ( my system is aging and I am running on far less RAM than newer machines use ) - so I began, in earnest, to find a new alternative. After fumbling through several ( Chrome and Opera included ) I landed on Iron - because of a tip from one of our resident tech guys, forum moderator ArMap. And I've loved it so far. It's fast, doesn't use a lot of resident memory, is easily customized, and allows me to add on all of the Chrome based extensions I choose to use.

~Heff

can you supply a link to Iron, when I try to search for it, I get nothing much. I hate Google Chrome, it always tried to hijack pages and searches. Mozilla will slow down your PC big time. So I would like to look into Iron, Thnks!

reply to post by Nana2


There is a link to it in my OP - I believe the last one on the list!

~Heff

Ah, so there is..DUH! Thanks. Had a blonbde moment, and these days they get combined with "senior moments"

reply to post by Hefficide


anyone still using IE deserves to get virus's and hacked. Terrible browser is terrible!

Originally posted by SpearMint
You shouldn't be using IE in the first place.

i haven't used..

IE .. even when it first came out..

period

I've been trying out Firefox and I really like how you can customize it and the privacy it offers. It also comes with a nice spell checker as you type! Would recommend

Bumping for the morning people who might be waking up and firing up their IE machines.

Although I'm a safari user, I just wanna say that THIS is the ATS I remember! People writing threads simply for everybody else's good and not stars & flags!

Thanks OP

reply to post by Hefficide


I use IE......OH MY GOD!!!! My laptop is virus infested!!!!

Oh no wait a minute, that was last night I was thinking that sitting in the basement with my tinfoil hat on...

All is good now and I am okay.....Whew.....All this terrible talk about IE just about made me collapse!!

If you have nothing important.....Who cares??

Who wants to raid my mortgage payment?? Feel free

Who wants to adopt my car payments?? Go for it.....

My bank account....Oh wait I have a seperate bank account I upload funds in ONLY to pay bills online and nothing else...

Play it safe and it doesn't matter what you use!!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


Unfortunately phishing is only one aspect of malicious code. Exploits can do anything from stealing passwords, to taking over your entire system or network - or even fry your motherboard.

Trust me... in the nineties I lost a $3,000 dollar PC to a variant of Monkey-B that fried my motherboard, processor, modem, and hard drive - and all in the time it took me to try a few commands, hit a power button, and pull the plug out of the wall.

~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide


Believe me when I say IE isn't the greatest.......But what is for that matter?

You do know who owns pretty much ALL internet capabilites right?? Big MONEY!!!

Anyone out there that uses anything to search is at risk at all times......

Nobody's system is unhackable!!

Just like I always say to my wife, a lock only keeps an honest person out......A thief will get in no matter the security!!

lol its just same old scare BS. Safari,firefox,chrome and opera all have vulnerabilities too.
www.wired.com...
reviews.cnet.com...
www.mozilla.org...

To think that IE is less safe than the alternatives is ignorant.