New Type of Identity Theft

[Brian R.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5524-2004Jun25.html

Apparently some web sites unknowingly host spyware. KBB was among them.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Also, some sites require registration to read.

Had read the article already on slashdot though, very glad I switched to Firefox after having to format and reinstall after a severe and unexplained malware infestation suddendly cropped up on our system (I'm betting it got in via one of those exploits.)

[Rob(QG)]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
Also, some sites require registration to read.

This link may be of some use:

http://www.bugmenot.com

Or, prefilled in

http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com

Since I heard of this problem earlier today, I have stopped using IE altogether. Now if only I could uninstall it
On the plus side it might encourage people to drop Microsoft's decrepit and under-maintained browser.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Rob(QG)
On the plus side it might encourage people to drop Microsoft's decrepit and under-maintained browser.

for what? an open source but under-maintained browser? as most of the open source development is slow as molasse, MS is a speed champ there...

[Sasq]

Originally posted by Kurt
for what? an open source but under-maintained browser? as most of the open source development is slow as molasse, MS is a speed champ there...

which under-maintained browser is that? young Mr Kurt?

[Rob(QG)]

Originally posted by Kurt
for what? an open source but under-maintained browser? as most of the open source development is slow as molasse, MS is a speed champ there...

IE 6 came out ages ago, and the differences between it and 5 and 5.5 are not huge. It's nowhere near standards compliant, has security flaws you can drive a bus through, is missing modern features, etc. Meanwhile the Mozilla (and presumably Opera) engine has improved leaps and bounds.

[UtwigMU]

The browser wars were between IE4 and Netscape 4. When IE5 came out and Netscape 5 didn't and IE was the best browser then, the browser war ended.

Since then MS have spent little time and resources on browser developement, which resulted in Mozilla and Opera surpasing them in some/most areas.

This shows, how coming up with good and polished browser takes years.


Disabling acess to IE (Win2k SP4 or XP SP1) is a bad thingâ„¢, since you can't update Windows without it.

Setting alternative browser (Mozilla flavours, Opera) of choice as default and having view in IE extension for nonstandard sites works fine, IE doesn't bitch about not being default browser.


@ Kurt - right now the alternative browsers are getting more effort than MS browser and it shows. By no means can you call the alternatives slow and undermaintained.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by UtwigMU
Disabling acess to IE (Win2k SP4 or XP SP1) is a bad thingâ„¢, since you can't update Windows without it.

Not true. You can still download the updates off of the corporate support site.

[UtwigMU]

I was just doing this today and IE is also a must for Update Catalog.

[Rob(QG)]

Good point - I'd forgotten about that

[KeiFront]

IE tooltip

IE tooltip

[Goc]

LOL

[Elie]

LOL, I think SP2 will take care of most of those things in IE

Cheers,
Elie

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Sasq
which under-maintained browser is that? young Mr Kurt?

Pick one.

[Sasq]

no, you made a broad statement, I was asking you to tell us which browsers you ment