Originally posted by: Staples
VirtualLarry, I would probably use Mozilla but since I only visit a select few websites and when I google, I do not visit underground websites (or porn), so I have always had good luck with IE. When you install Mozilla, you do not have ActiveX installers for every plug in and video does not work. You have to tinker with everything to get it to work as well at IE does out of the box. It is a good browser but because the net is made for IE, there are a few webpages that do not work right with its rendering engine. As for now, IE works well for me and gives me the least hastle. I probably would use Mozilla if I did visit underground websites which are the most likely to post "f**k up IE code" on them.
Oh yeah, I have always had Javascript and ActiveX running, it is just that I stay away from little known websites.
That's just the thing though - the prevailing user attitude (and I'm not picking on you specifically, just trying to use your post as a way to illustrate the issue, so that perhaps more people will see and realize this), is that IE users only get affected by "bad sites", and as long as you don't go there, you will be safe.
That is also emphatically not true, as proven by the recent rash of intentional exploits, (allegedly) russian hackers broke into a large number of well-known, big-name, corporate web sites, and get them to attach a piece of trojan code into their "footer" HTML (when running IIS), and then the browser, due to it's own lack of security, would automatically and silently execute that code, and install a keylogger on your own PC, to collect credit-card numbers and passwords and other personal details, and ship then off to some web site in Russia for the criminals to make use of.
That is the same sort of thinking the people had, when the so-called "AIDS epidemic" was on the rise - that "the disease" only affected homosexuals and intravenous drug users. As long as you were neither of those, you still didn't need to use protection, because that disease wouldn't affect you. That proved untrue, as I believe that the same line of thinking along with insecure browsers will also. Surfing the net with IE, as it currently stands, is like having unprotected sex. Really. All kinds of nasties can find their way in. Granted, you can indeed reduce your risks, by not going to known "bad" sites, but that doesn't make you immune, either. The better solution is to use a "better browser", in the first place.
Here is
another article, this one containing some interesting quotes:
"It's safe to say that IE is not safe to use," says Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at Helsinki antivirus company F-Secure. "I don't use it and I know of companies that have banned it all together," he says.
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, also recently suggested that users reduce exposure to IE vulnerabilities by using a different browser.
PS. The net was
not "made for IE", in fact IE was incredibly late to the party. The fact that IE showed up, with several friends named Windows, and WMP, both toting shotguns, did tend to end that party pretty quickly though.
PPS. All of the major media datatypes, also come packed as an .XPI installer now, for Firefox at least, which with default settings, will prompt you to auto-install them, just like IE does with ActiveX controls. Tried visiting update.mozilla.org yet?