Major flaw revealed in Internet Explorer; users urged to switch

by **k-e-e-n** Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:44 pm

by Christopher Null: The Working Guy

The major press outlets are abuzz this morning with news of a major new security flaw that affects all versions of Internet Explorer from IE5 to the latest beta of IE8. The attack has serious and far-reaching ramifications -- and they're not just theoretical attacks. In fact, the flaw is already in wide use as a tool to steal online game passwords, with some 10,000 websites infected with the code needed to take advantage of the hole in IE.

Virtually all security experts (as well as myself) are counseling users to switch to any other web browser -- none of the others are affected, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera -- at least for the time being, though Microsoft has stubbornly said it "cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw." Microsoft adds that it is working on a fix but has offered no ETA on when that might happen. Meanwhile it offers some suggestions for a temporary patch, including setting your Internet security zone settings to "high" and offering some complicated workarounds. (Some reports state, however, that the fixes do not actually work.)

Expedient patching or switching are essential. Security pros fear that the attack will soon spread beyond the theft of gaming passwords and into more criminal arenas, as the malicious code can be placed on any website and can be adapted to steal any password stored or entered using the browser. It's now down to the issue of time: Will Microsoft repair the problem and distribute a patch quickly enough to head off the tsunami of fraud that's about to hit or will it come too late to do any good?

Meanwhile, I'll reiterate my recommendation: Switch from Internet Explorer as soon as you can. You can always switch back once the threat is eliminated. (To clarify: You don't need to uninstall IE, just don't use it for the time being.)

Source: Yahoo Tech

by **f0r3v3r_force** Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:29 am

thanks for the info sir keen....

by **tart_force** Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:04 pm

thank's for this info sir keen! GODbless!

by **issarosette** Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:39 am

IE made my internet browsing very difficult.

I don't know about pass word theft, but my IE get's stuck up

and wouldn't allow me to open even my friendster account.

At first I thought it was my notebook, until I switched to another

internet browser. Now I browse just fine, even downloading from

thepiratebay.org (learned about this through cz pakner inspire) is a

whiz.