MS Internet Explorer security problems - Use Firefox instead

[kyber]

Firefox, 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 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:


Stuart

 

[gary]

I've been using Firefox for a few months now and am very happy with it. As you say there are one or two sites that don't work with it (banking sites for example!) but at least I'm pretty secure in the knowledge that it's safer.

That said, the more popular it becomes, the more likely it is that it will be targeted!

Gary

 

[kyber]

That said, the more popular it becomes, the more likely it is that it will be targeted!

Indeed although the fact that it is not built on sand (i.e. Windows code) and the code being open source and already examined in detail by the great and good should provide a much higher fence.

 

[broadband-engine]

Hi

I changed to firefox sometime ago and it is a far better browser than IE, I never get problems like screen freezes and crashes. I have found that there are some nice skins to download and there are browser 'tools' like the combined Google/Alexa toolbar that can be downloaded especially for firefox. All in all highly cutomisable which I like. The one and only problem I have is that it does not tolerate one of my web-mail accounts. Everything else is fine.

Phil

 

[K_P_Martin]

Yes Firefox is great. I have been using it for ages. It does run quicker than IE also.

Try Thunderbird for the e-mail to.

Kev

 

[Desmond Brambley]

I ditched IE for Opera, I find it even faster than Firefox, and I prefere the interface with Opera

http://www.opera.com

 

[Ozzy]

As a Linux user I do come across problems such as online banking, but after years of Netscrape I now use Firefox and Thunderbird combined anyway ... oh and Virus's are almost unheard of for me

Then again, I am a Geek(tm)

 

[Rob Holmes]

As a Linux user I do come across problems such as online banking, but after years of Netscrape I now use Firefox and Thunderbird combined anyway ... oh and Virus's are almost unheard of for me

Then again, I am a Geek(tm)

Hi
Like you I use Firefox but ditched Thunderbird for Calypso which I really rate.

I'm unsure if you can use it on Linux - I run a windows OS for my primary local system but we run Linux servers..

BUT - I have the latest Knoppix Linux Distribution awaiting installation on my secondary system - have you (or anyone else) tried it?

Rob

 

[Ozzy]

I've played with Knoppix but only for finding which module runs which piece of hardware. As a desktop OS I've tried Redhat, SuSE, Slackware and Mandrake.
I found Slackware my favourite for some time as it allowed me to play with the config a lot more but have now settled for Mandrake as don't have time to play with software anymore.

 

[David Harris]

I've played with Knoppix but only for finding which module runs which piece of hardware. As a desktop OS I've tried Redhat, SuSE, Slackware and Mandrake.
I found Slackware my favourite for some time as it allowed me to play with the config a lot more but have now settled for Mandrake as don't have time to play with software anymore.

Were you aware that you can install Knoppix to the harddrive? I forget the exact command but its something like 'kpxhdinstall' or somesuch. That always worked well for me. Debian is very good if you can get past the cr**py text installer and dont mind setting everything up by hand. I've just started using SuSE 9.2 which is very good.

 

[Ozzy]

Never tried Debian myself even though I have an install cd here .. still attached to Slackware and Mandrake.