Internet explorer 7 hacked

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Yesterday morning there was a report on BBCTV that a bunch of Chinese had hacked into a back door of Internet Explorer and could access all your codes and passwords etc. So my wife and I lept off the web all day, waiting for a TV announcement that it was OK now. Phoned my ISP last night to be told that the BBC hadn't reported it (!) and they didn't know anything about it.

Took a chance this morning and found via Google an article in The Times to say it was only IE7 and that my wife's machine was OK, because she's running Vista. Also advising a number of changes to security settings in IE7, which I did.

So then I tried to access my mailbox and got a message to say that it didn't like my security settings and would I please do this that and the other to them? So I did, wondering if I'd have to do that to every site I visited, but no, I got in here without any trouble. But it seems to me that the changes I made at Yahoo's request might have fucked up the security settings I upped earlier - in other words, using the internet at a security level consonant with avoiding this hacking problem is actually impossible from a practical point of view (at least in IE7).

So I'm considering going over to Firefox. A number of questions:

Can I import all my favourites from IE7 into Firefox, or will I have to start from scratch? (I assume the former, since the favourites are in Windows Explorer, too.)

What do I need to run Firefox?

What kind of Firefox do I need?

Any help on these issues would be most welcome indeed!

MG

[Niko]

Yesterday morning there was a report on BBCTV that a bunch of Chinese had hacked into a back door of Internet Explorer and could access all your codes and passwords etc. So my wife and I lept off the web all day, waiting for a TV announcement that it was OK now. Phoned my ISP last night to be told that the BBC hadn't reported it (!) and they didn't know anything about it.

Took a chance this morning and found via Google an article in The Times to say it was only IE7 and that my wife's machine was OK, because she's running Vista. Also advising a number of changes to security settings in IE7, which I did.

So then I tried to access my mailbox and got a message to say that it didn't like my security settings and would I please do this that and the other to them? So I did, wondering if I'd have to do that to every site I visited, but no, I got in here without any trouble. But it seems to me that the changes I made at Yahoo's request might have fucked up the security settings I upped earlier - in other words, using the internet at a security level consonant with avoiding this hacking problem is actually impossible from a practical point of view (at least in IE7).

So I'm considering going over to Firefox. A number of questions:

Can I import all my favourites from IE7 into Firefox, or will I have to start from scratch? (I assume the former, since the favourites are in Windows Explorer, too.)

What do I need to run Firefox?

What kind of Firefox do I need?

Any help on these issues would be most welcome indeed!

MG

until someone more knowledgable comes around... i dimly remember that firefox asked me whether i wanted to import the favorites from the IE version on my computer (or that there was such an option somewhere in the program...) but memory might fail me here... (at the very least IE is still there and you can open it to look up addresses) don't think you need many prerequisites to run firefox, i would just go here and download what they offer you:

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/

edit to add, seems there is indeed this import option i remembered

http://www.kb.indiana.edu/data/atus.html

Edited December 18, 2008 by Niko

[Chuck Nessa]

The change is easy. Go for it.

[J.A.W.]

This was posted on the BBC site yesterday. I got the patch via Windows Update.

[king ubu]

www.opera.com - great alternative, not known and used widely (and by now even AMG works on it - some sites aren't configured to work well on all browsers, but of late I haven't met any problems with Opera, must have been several years back that I had to open MSIE to read a non-displaying site).

[king ubu]

A swiss newspaper's website has a short article today about the MSIE incident. They mention a test that showed that Firefox was even much less secure and claimed it to be the most error-prone Windows programme... as I said: get Opera!

here's the link, for the few who understand German:

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/digital/comput.../story/17138380

Edited December 18, 2008 by king ubu

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This was posted on the BBC site yesterday. I got the patch via Windows Update.

Thanks Hans. I did get a MS update when I conected this morning, so it looks like I'm covered.

MG

[king ubu]

after reading that article I linked that seems to be the smarter choice than changing to firefox!

[Niko]

A swiss newspaper's website has a short article today about the MSIE incident. They mention a test that showed that Firefox was even much less secure and claimed it to be the most error-prone Windows programme... as I said: get Opera!

here's the link, for the few who understand German:

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/digital/comput.../story/17138380

not that i didn't understand it... is "Effort" a proper word in swiss german?

[jostber]

When you have tried Firefox you will never go back:

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Just download, install, and choose File-Import and then you get everything from IE.

Then proceed to install addons if you want:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Edited December 18, 2008 by jostber

[king ubu]

Both in Swiss German as well as in the Swiss variant of proper/high German, yes. At least I'd say so. It's not a topic I've done much thinking of (or learned anything about in University), but there are many, many regionally used words both in Switzerland and Austria that would seem strange to Germans, I guess. In Switzerland of course there are many French words that are used commonly, as in this case.

[king ubu]

That was in reply to niko's question of course. My MSIE (at work) keeps bitching today, I didn't see the post in between, or I'd have used the quote function...

[Jim Alfredson]

If you switch browsers, make sure your computer is set to "automatic updates". The Windows update website does not function under any other browser and even if you're using another browser you can still get browser hi-jacks that affect IE and thus your computer.

I had a fun one come through myspace the other day. It turned off automatic updates and wouldn't let me turn it back on, deleted my previous system restore settings, and wedged itself into both IE and Firefox. It would cause pop-ups for porn, system cleaning software, warez sites, etc. Really annoying and it took me a couple of hours to get rid of it.

[king ubu]

If you switch browsers, make sure your computer is set to "automatic updates". The Windows update website does not function under any other browser and even if you're using another browser you can still get browser hi-jacks that affect IE and thus your computer.

Yes, that's a sound piece of advice!

[rockefeller center]

not that i didn't understand it... is "Effort" a proper word in swiss german?

Two more: exploit, forfait. Swiss German rulez. +

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If you switch browsers, make sure your computer is set to "automatic updates". The Windows update website does not function under any other browser and even if you're using another browser you can still get browser hi-jacks that affect IE and thus your computer.

I had a fun one come through myspace the other day. It turned off automatic updates and wouldn't let me turn it back on, deleted my previous system restore settings, and wedged itself into both IE and Firefox. It would cause pop-ups for porn, system cleaning software, warez sites, etc. Really annoying and it took me a couple of hours to get rid of it.

That's useful advice Jim, thanks. I do always have automatic updates turned on - although it's a pain in the arse when you want to go to bed and you're told "update 1 of 5 installing..." I just can't be asked to remember to look for updates when there's so many other things to do.

"Popups for porn" carries a certain imagery...

MG

[Chuck Nessa]

Not the same thing as "popups from porn".

[alocispepraluger102]

i have used google chrome for about 3 months and prefer it to firefox.

the problems i've had with firefox are mainly that some of the firefox skins REALLY foul up your browser.

[king ubu]

not that i didn't understand it... is "Effort" a proper word in swiss german?

Two more: exploit, forfait. Swiss German rulez. +

and of course "gooooool!!!!", not "tooooor!"

[seeline]

I started using Firefox 4 years ago and haven't looked back since, although I've switched over to Google Chrome for most things over the past few months, mainly because it's faster than FF and (generally speaking) less buggy. I also use Opera, which is a great browser.

IE is only for Netflix's "watch instantly" feature these days - because they refuse to do the development for other web browsers. (I really dislike IE; have for years.)

All that said, Firefox just rolled out a brand-new update with major bug fixes, so now's the time!

[JSngry]

What's the deal w/this Google Chrome, and why should I not continue my sneaking suspicion that Google is trying to become, like, the Wal-Mart of the internet?

[rockefeller center]

not that i didn't understand it... is "Effort" a proper word in swiss german?

Two more: exploit, forfait. Swiss German rulez. +

and of course "gooooool!!!!", not "tooooor!"

:-) FC Zürich boo!

[rockefeller center]

Google Chrome:

# When you type URLs or queries in the address bar, the letters you type are sent to Google so the Suggest feature can automatically recommend terms or URLs you may be looking for. If you choose to share usage statistics with Google and you accept a suggested query or URL, Google Chrome will send that information to Google as well. You can disable this feature as explained here.

# If you navigate to a URL that does not exist, Google Chrome may send the URL to Google so we can help you find the URL you were looking for. You can disable this feature as explained here.

# Google Chrome's SafeBrowsing feature periodically contacts Google's servers to download the most recent list of known phishing and malware sites. In addition, when you visit a site that we think could be a phishing or malware site, your browser will send Google a hashed, partial copy of the site's URL so that we can send more information about the risky URL. Google cannot determine the real URL you are visiting from this information. More information about how this works is here.

# Your copy of Google Chrome includes one or more unique application numbers. These numbers and information about your installation of the browser (e.g., version number, language) will be sent to Google when you first install and use it and when Google Chrome automatically checks for updates. If you choose to send usage statistics and crash reports to Google, the browser will send us this information along with a unique application number as well. Crash reports can contain information from files, applications and services that were running at the time of a malfunction. We use crash reports to diagnose and try to fix any problems with the browser.

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/privacy.html?hl=en

Kill-ID gets rid of the google chrome calling-home bullshit http://www.almisoft.de/?cont=kchrome

Then there's Chromium: http://code.google.com/chromium/

Lots of stuff to choose from. I'm happy with the versatile Firefox and Konqueror.

[rockefeller center]

What's the deal w/this Google Chrome, and why should I not continue my sneaking suspicion that Google is trying to become, like, the Wal-Mart of the internet?

You're typing this on the Wal-Mart of operating systems, no?

[JSngry]

Yeah, but with the Target of browsers...

That counts for something, doesn't it?