 Pop-up ads viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer may install a keyboard sniffing (BHO) program that sends your keystrokes to an attacker when you visit banking, shopping or other websites that involve the use of accounts or credit cards. Stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer now! Services like MSN, SBC/Yahoo! and AOL that are built on top of MS Internet Explorer are also vulnerable. The US Dept. of Homeland Security now recommends
dumping Internet Explorer.
Here is what they
say....
Use a different web browser
There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML).
So they recommend not using Internet Explorer, but also acknowledge that Windows is insecure because you cannot entirely remove Internet Explorer. Microsoft made that impossible. Still you are better off
not using Internet Explorer as your primary browser on the internet.
Read more about this latest exploit
here and
here.
We have been telling our customers for years to not to use Internet Explorer due to its horrible design and irresponsible security flaws. Few ISPs have let their customers know that IE is unsafe for any need on the internet, but we have.
At A-Street we know how to remove and prevent further future infection of these backdoors. It does require some attention by users, but A-Street customers that follow our advice do not become victims. Popular
antivirus software does not stop these infections.
Call us at 650-596-3500 about bringing in your system to cleaned and tuned. It takes about a day and in most cases your computer will run faster than the day you purchased it.
As a quick fix immediately replace Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express with the free Mozilla products available
here. However, if you have been using Internet Explorer on the internet at anytime in the last year, odds are your system is already owned by crackers regardless of any antivirus or firewall software you have installed. Have your system examined by a professional, who knows what a BHO is,what a Browser extension is, what ActiveX is, how they work and how to work in the Windows registry. No packaged product you can purchase is capable of finding all the infections and exploits. They will find some, but not all.
Smart web surfers are
abandoning Microsoft IE in droves while sales of Macintoshes to replace Windows have become so brisk recently that Apple is
running out of current Macs.
Microsoft continues to produce defective software without penalty, because you as the customer cannot sue them or compel them to fix anything as explained
here.
Even Microsoft owned
publications are (grudingly) telling readers to
dump Internet Explorer.
There are security holes in Internet Explorer that Microsoft has known about that they have
never fixed. This one allows a hacker to phish from within the webrowser. Thought you were at your bank's website? Maybe not.
Microsoft: on the Internet is unsafe for any need.
Microsoft has issued a patch that does
not really fix the problem. All MSIE users are still vulnerable.
Remember when Steve Balmer and Microsoft told you that
Windows XP was Microsoft's most secure operating system ever? And you bought it. These same problems have been going on for as long as Windows XP has been
on the market since September 2001. And they will just keep coming, because the design of Windows is not ever going to be secure on the public internet. Unless they rewrite it from the ground up breaking currrent applications and then call that complete re-write: Windows
Then you'll get to pay for it all over again....
The media is finally catching up with A-Street on this issue.
- Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer - Lockergnome’s Tech News Watch
- BW Online | June 29, 2004 | Internet Explorer Is Just Too Risky (link from Molly)
- Internet Explorer Is Too Dangerous to Keep Using (again from Molly)
- Pop-up Program Snatches Banking Passwords (link from A Whole Lotta Nothing
- The Latest Update CERT recommends anything but IE | The Register
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