kyber
15th November 2004, 12:45
Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org), the open-source (and free to use) web browser, has at last reached a version 1.0 release. It is a much more capable and modern browser than the current offering from Microsoft and avoids many of the security problems associated with MS IE (which is, of course, very heavily targeted by hackers because of its common use). I recommend it to all, at least to try it out if nothing else. I think you will find the tabbed browsing, the ability to print pages properly, and the speed a great advantage over Internet Explorer.
Security problems continue to plague Microsoft Internet Explorer. For example, MyDoom-AH targets a vulnerability in Internet Explorer which only surfaced last week. As yet, Microsoft has not released a patch to secure the browser. US-CERT suggests the use of an alternative browser to avoid problems with MS IE: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, the graphical user interface (GUI), 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).See this bulletin (http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878) for more information.
I do nearly all of my browsing using Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. There are a few sites that are MS IE specific (a design error in these days of accessibility compliance and search enginee dominance).
You can download and try out Firefox via the following link:
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/180x60/safer.gif (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=0&t=59)
Stuart
Security problems continue to plague Microsoft Internet Explorer. For example, MyDoom-AH targets a vulnerability in Internet Explorer which only surfaced last week. As yet, Microsoft has not released a patch to secure the browser. US-CERT suggests the use of an alternative browser to avoid problems with MS IE: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, the graphical user interface (GUI), 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).See this bulletin (http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878) for more information.
I do nearly all of my browsing using Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. There are a few sites that are MS IE specific (a design error in these days of accessibility compliance and search enginee dominance).
You can download and try out Firefox via the following link:
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/180x60/safer.gif (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=0&t=59)
Stuart