PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: Simon on December 16, 2008, 21:33
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Is it safe to Explore? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/is_it_safe_to_explore.html)
Rory Cellan-Jones
16 Dec 08, 13:38 GMT
If the average computer user read the Microsoft security advisory (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx?pf=true) about the Internet Explorer vulnerability - and you'd struggle to find it if you weren't looking - you might be none the wiser about how serious this was, or what action you should take.
A long way down comes this line: "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user." As far as I understand it, that means there is a real danger that Internet Explorer 7 users (and possibly users of other versions of IE) could be opening the door to cyber criminals to allow them to ransack the contents of your hard drive. In other words, it is a pretty serious situation.
So when I spoke to John Curran, head of Windows at Microsoft UK, I had three questions.
1. How serious is this?
Mr Curran told me that only a tiny proportion of websites were infected, but given the sheer scale of today's web, that could affect a large number of people. So, he said, "it is certainly something people should take seriously."
2. So what should IE users do?
Microsoft is working on a patch but in the meantime Mr Curran said there were four steps to take:
- make sure anti-virus software is up to date.
- run Internet Explorer 7 or 8 in "protected mode".
- set Internet Explorer zone security setting to "High"
- Windows users should enable Automatic Updates so that they get any patch that is issued.
But of course doing all of that is not only time-consuming, it will make your web browsing experience slower and less rewarding. Which brings us to the final question.
3. Shouldn't you switch to another browser until the patch come out?
This has been the advice of a number of security firms - who of course are also touting their latest anti-virus products - but you won't be surprised to hear that Mr Curran disagrees. He told me he had recently seen a report which listed another browser as having the highest number of vulnerabilities. "it would not be advisable," he said,"to send people from one vulnerability (in Internet Explorer) to multiple vulnerabilities."
But given the choice between messing around with Internet Explorer and so enduring a second-rate browsing experience until the hole is fixed, or running Firefox, Safari or Opera, aren't quite a few people likely to switch? This could be the moment when the minnows in the browser wars finally score a significant victory.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/
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just use f***ing firefox.
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Tell it like it is, Sam! :thumb:
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I switched to FF 3 and Im really impressed it seems to be better ;D
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I don't know how much better FF3 is to FF2, but I've not had a problem with either.
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Oh, sorry David, I misread you. Yes, FF3 is much better than IE. :thumb: I heard Sam is going for the job as Head of Advertising! ;D
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just use f***ing firefox.
I prefer Mozilla Firefox.
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people who use Internet Explorer deserve everything they get! :laugh:
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I heard Sam is going for the job as Head of Advertising! ;D
lol. Clear, honest and to the point mate - you can't do that in advertising!
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"Its the way I write them Simon" ;) ;D
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;D
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people who use Internet Explorer deserve everything they get! :laugh:
Unfortunately, they tend to then share it with the rest of us. :(
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Its a minefield for the ordinary person though surely,if you buy a Sat Nav you dont expect to have to change the basic data which comes with it,how are they supposed to even have an inkling and Im sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who only turn it on and this issue is now in the papers today I wonder how many are now paying people to come and what they think will be a big job,changing the browser,many I know dont even know what it is.......so I do feel for them as they will hand over wads of cash to get prtected or be terrified of going online......I have this problem daily as I have only just got the knack of swithing it on ;D
The almost daily development of the internet is hard to keep up with and the PC worlds of this country are filled daily with these people who really havnt any idea if what is sold as so called user freindly which it is to a degree but fraught with problems if you wish to do more than send Emails and the like ':|
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doesn't help that the people who staff these places have no fundamental idea about computing. Well that's probably not true but most of the staff don't appear to. I think most tend to only know what other colours things come in. Come on people get an education. I sometimes think people should be given a proper guide on how todo things on the computer before they leave the shop. Though I think I'd be annoyed by that treatment. When my girlfriend bought her new laptop recently the woman at PC World was trying heavily to get us to buy their computer protection software.. I was trying to avoid having a rant so I just said - "oh, no need, the first thing I will be doing when we get home is wipe this s**t operating system and install Ubuntu - then it will be nice and secure."
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MS are pushing out a patch later today (18:00).
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What! No mention of Chrome? :dunno: ;D
Go on, you know you want to!! Clicky by ear. (http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en-GB&brand=CHMA&utm_campaign=en_gb&utm_source=en_gb-ha-emea-uk-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20chrome)
:leer:
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You are totally corrrect,your comment of the staff is very valid some do know what they are talking about but have no desire to share the knowledge,others have no idea except what they pick up along the way,like them or oathe them I love my local Maplins they really do guide you and the guys there really do give you the benefit of their knowledge.when I wanted a new psu the guy spent nearly an hour with me so I really appreciated all he had told me.
Im not the sharpest tool in the box (as you know) and I still have some of that stuff on my new laptops which I purchased this year and even my desktop.....because it can be very unerving to,delete or unistall things which we think may damge the pc or it will no longer work after.I think that people like me should shoulder a lot of the blame,a little research could save a lot of heartache and worry for some.....this isnt a subject that can be learned overnight,but it is certainly packaged and sold under this illusion.
I doubt I will ever master the thing but I know people that think I am a genius just because I have set up a wireless connection or something as simple as this,or even installed a programme.........its very common I ask and google but I have a very long way to go before the "confidence" and that is the key to it is ever there,I find my young children aged just 8 and 10 have no fear and get better results sometimes why?because they have no fear,they just think...whats that button and have a good go and get results,adults think twice and are generally afraidof the PC...well thats my opinion.............................now playing the blues on the blues on piano now thats a different thing entirely ;D
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they just think...whats that button and have a good go and get results
I think that's a very relevant point, David. I don't profess to be a 'techie', but what I have learnt, was learnt from clicking on stuff to see what it did. I soon realised that there's always a reverse for any forward action, and that in most cases, the computer will not allow the user to do something catastrophic, without warning after warning, and if one is daft enough not to read them, that's when they get into trouble. I know that's all very general, and things can go wrong, but I think the basic premise of clicking on stuff to learn your way around a program, or Windows itself, is a good one.
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Though with some reservations...
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Indeed. :)
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Its good to talk ;) ;D
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who invited Bob Hoskins in here?
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I met him years ago when he was filming near me ........he is an ok guy :thumbs:
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I also saw him filming in Brighton, I think it was Mona Lisa, but didn't get to meet him. He's always seemed OK to me. :)
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I was getting my paper and he was behind me,he is not very tall but very friendly which is unusual for such a world famous actor .
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This could be the beginning of the end for IE. Meanwhile I've downloaded the patch. :D
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This could be the beginning of the end for IE.
We live in hope! :devil:
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I live in London Simon but hope sounds very nice is it near Watford ;D
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It is very nice, but the one I know is in the Peak District. ;D
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Is it near the twin peaks Clive...................I have always wanted to nestle in twin peaks :devil: :crazy:
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:boobies:
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Oh, here we go! ;D
Congrats on 1000 posts, David! We don't tend to make quite such a fuss here! ;)
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That's just because we're more fussy over there. ;)
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Thats a surprise to me !!!!! thanks Simon I thought maybe 200 odd you sure ? :thumbs:
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Oh yes. :)x
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God I must change this medication...... :o :o
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I suppose one advantage that Internet Explorer has over it's main rival, Mozilla Firefox 3.x series, is that it works on all computers. I should know as I have been using it for the last week, until this morning when I downloaded Opera (I am using Opera now) after Firefox began to crash on every website, even this one. I had been having problems with Firefox for ages on "heavy" sites such as Facebook and some of the walking sites I visit that have loads of pictures on them, but it had reached the stage where it had become unusable. I had done all the recommended fixes, such as uninstalling it and deleting my profile then reinstalling etc. to no avail. The final straw was this morning when I tried to send a couple of text messages through my account on orange.co.uk, and it crashed three times in as many minutes. I even tried using it in its own "safe mode" in case one of the two Add-ons I use, Adblock Plus and Toolbar Buttons was the problem, but it still crashed on a page with hardly anything on it.
For the last two hours, I have been using Opera and haven't had a single browser crash. I don't know if Firefox 3x series is unstable on Linux as the spare computer I use to mess about on has Moziila's full suite running under Knoppix and it seems stable enough, but I will be looking at oldversion.com over the next few days to download Firefox 1.5x series, the best browser I have ever used. F**k security, I want to be able to browse the www first,I'll worry about security after.
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Reservations are growing in my mind about FF too. It takes ages to fire up and it stumbles when accessing websites which should be easy.
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And here am I just changed :dunno: :dunno: :stars: :stars: :stars:
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It's fine, David. There's no reason to assume that the websites FF 'stumbles' on, wouldn't have given IE a problem too. :)
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Im happier with FF forgot how much better it was in comparison with IE :D
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FF3 is fantastic as long as you disable the awesome bar.