Urgent warning

[ciphergoth]

Stop browsing the web NOW, or your computer will come under the control of the Bad Guys. Read this first.

Internet Explorer, the web browser that comes bundled with Windows and some Mac systems, has a serious security flaw. Just by viewing a web page you might compromise your machine. And thousands of web pages all over the Net contain the damaging code - because the machines hosting those pages have been compromised. This means that you will be attacked even if you stick to browsing sites that you trust.

There is no fix to Internet Explorer available, even though this flaw has been known about for some time. If you continue to use this browser, you are asking the bad guys to control your computer. They will use it for things like sending spam and compromising your bank details and personal information.

Currently the only fix is to install another browser. Even if Microsoft get around to fixing this problem, the history shows that there will be many others, and that your computer will be open to takeover by others for as long as you use Internet Explorer.

If your workplace forbid you from installing software on your machine, you have three choices:

1. Never browse the Web from your work computer - just don't start the browser at all, ever.
2. Disobey your work and install another browser.
3. Disobey your work and install a program for sending spam, involuntarily, courtesy of the Bad Guys.

Please don't choose option 3.

I recommend installing Mozilla Firefox right away. Others prefer other browsers - pretty much any alternative to Internet Explorer will be better.

More details in reddragdiva's journal. But maybe install a new browser first, and then go browsing later?

Comments

Mico$oft IE

[missedephemera.livejournal.com]

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<tis' paul speaking> Needless to say, Mona and I have never, EVER, been in the nasty habit of using IE as our default web browser. We us an independent third party browser and for no better reason than Mona is Norwegian, we use a paid up version of Opera (http://www.opera.com/). Again, needless to say, Opera (IOMHO)is vastly superior to IE in functionality (blah, blah, etc... OperaRocksOK!). The only problem, and it is a biggie, seems to be that there are some web sites that seem to be configured in such a way that ONLY IE will function correctly accessing them. We suspect this to be a deliberate ploy by Micro$oft to ensure IE usage. To its credit, Opera can try to disguise itself as IE to get past these IE-only-acess-sites, but not yet 100% sucessfully.