Web browser flaw prompts warning
June 25, 2004 at 11:05 AM
Update 2: Here's Microsoft's page for dealing with it.
Update: some great comments in the comments. I'm usually the one to send the little boy crying wolf back to his room, and these comments do just that with excellent points.
This is an Internet Explorer only problem right now, and the nastiness is coming when visiting big reputable sites. If you find your browser being redirected to a russian site, DANGER Will Robinson, you're on the path to seirous trouble. Until this problem dies down... use Fire Fox. It's only a 5 MB download.
Also--now is a good time to make sure your virus protection is all up to date.
I bet within a week we learn that this was way overhyped. The story doesn't pass the smell test.
1. Evil Eastern Eurpoean mafia hackers get into some of the largest sites on the Internet, nobody notices.
2. They install a worm so evil it installs itself without anybody noticing ,phones home, downloads more evil software.
3. The kicker - nobody will ID the sites in question.
Not that the Firefox suggestion isn't a good one. I hid the IE shortcut on my wife's computer to make sure she only uses Firefox.
Posted by: Chris O'Donnell | June 25, 2004 at 12:10 PM
What I don't get is why the security advisories, when exhorting users to install microsoft updates and antivirus tools and spyware busters, don't mention firewalls? Just let nothing connect inbound or outbound without your permission.. of course it requires you to not carelessly permit anything upon being prompted..
PS. That picture of Russian people out in the snow is so ridiculously irrelevant.
Posted by: Firas | June 25, 2004 at 12:14 PM
Great points!
Posted by: Carson McComas | June 25, 2004 at 01:09 PM