Topic: Viruses, Spyware & Other Internet Monsters
Don't use Internet Explorer!
I don't normally make blanket statements like that, I'd rather have a choice and I like to let other people make their own choices too. But it just keeps getting worse and worse with IE, more and more criminals (hackers, phishers, spammers) keep finding more new ways to exploit all the problems in IE and it will only continue to get worse, not better.
What's prompted my urge to everyone to switch is the latest and most dangerous exploit - read this article at CNet.
Any site hosted on a server using Windows (2000, 2003, NT, etc.) can get infected. Sites hosted on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and other types of server O/S can't get infected.
There are a good chunk of large and reputable sites running on Windows servers. As the CNet articles notes, even bank sites are getting infected and then the site can infect their customers - even going to an https url is not safe, the virus can infect the user from a secure https url.
The big lesson here for users is: Don't use IE - except for going to the Windows Update website (and if you're on Windows XP, you don't even have to do that, the XP update feature will do it automatically and without going thru IE). For all browsing, other than the Windows Update site, here's safe alternatives that cannot be infected by this virus or other malicious adware, spyware or any other nasties that automatically install thru IE.
Links open in new windows - all of these browsers are free of charge and advertising except for Opera.
- Firefox (recommended for IE users)
- Mozilla (recommended for Netscape users)
- Opera (for Windows or Mac users, also note that this browser is not free, you can either pay in cash or pay thru having ads displayed at the top of the browser)
- Camino (for Mac OS X users)
- Safari (for Mac OS X users)
(While Mac users aren't affected by this virus, the IE version for Mac is not a great browser, imho, so I'm including alternatives for Mac users as well.)