The Internet Explorer Dilemma
The following excerpts were taken from an article in USA Today's Tech section recently:
Security experts say the two new attacks likely have been in operation for weeks, infecting tens of thousands of PCs. Given the history of cyberthreats, they are bracing for copycat assaults. "Internet Explorer's track record is such that the software just cannot be trusted right now," says Jeremiah Grossman, CEO of WhiteHat Security. The FBI's Cyber Division is investigating, a spokeswoman says. Banks in the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East — Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, among them — were among 50 targeted sites. A Citibank spokesman says the bank, with 2 million online users, took steps to protect its Microsoft Web servers several weeks ago. However, the only thing banks can do to stop the most recent kind of attack is recommend that customers stop using Internet Explorer, says Joe Stewart, a researcher at security firm Lurhq.
Not using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to browse the internet is easier said than done. Anyone who has attempted to go to their favorite site using a Netscape browser will soon discover that their favorite site does not display because many site developers don't bother testing the site's HTML with anything but Internet Explorer. And asking a website administrator to correct their site for Netscape or another browser is likely to result in no response.
Until such time as sites - like www.tvguide.com for example - begin taking seriously the need to check its site changes against other browsers before installing updates, it is useless for members of the security community to suggest that users use another browser other than IE. The net publising community so far hasn't gotten the message and without action on their part, the alternate browser suggestion is a moot one.
7/08/04 ( 251 )
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