The disclosure of a handful of critical security holes reported in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser is conjuring up an old debate about the process of reporting security vulnerabilities as well as the usual concern over hacker attacks and compromised computers. The five scripting vulnerabilities, described as “extremely critical” by Danish security company Secunia, were reportedly uncovered by Chinese researcher Liu Die Yu. While so-called “proof of concept” exploit code is available on the Internet, Microsoft has yet to provide a patch or a workaround for the holes.
It just makes sense to use an alternative browser like Mozilla or Opera, which were rated as the best browsers. I only use IE when absolutely necessary, which is rarely. Both Mozilla and Opera are smaller downloads than IE and are not susceptible to runtime errors or the hijacking tactics mentioned in this article. Both come with built-in popup blocking mechanisms as well. I believe that people just need to be aware that they have more alternatives than Microsoft products, many of which work more effectively.
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Critical IE Flaws Invoke Debate on Bug Reporting
Posted by: Jay Lyman November 26, 2003 11:50 AMThe disclosure of a handful of critical security holes reported in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser is conjuring up an old debate about the process of reporting security vulnerabilities as well as the usual concern over hacker attacks and compromised computers. The five scripting vulnerabilities, described as “extremely critical” by Danish security company Secunia, were reportedly uncovered by Chinese researcher Liu Die Yu. While so-called “proof of concept” exploit code is available on the Internet, Microsoft has yet to provide a patch or a workaround for the holes.