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Dept. of Homeland Security Says to Stop Using IE

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the warning-is-years-late-in-coming dept.

LWATCDR writes "I have been saying this for a long time but now it is offical. From Yahoo News: 'The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team touched off a storm this week when it recommended for security reasons using browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.'" In related news, rocketjam writes "According to Wired, the widespread Internet Explorer security exploit last week and CERT's subsequent recommendation that IE users should consider switching to another browser has resulted in a large spike in downloads of the Mozilla Organization's Mozilla and Firefox web browsers."

6 of 1,069 comments (clear)

  1. Its About time by arieswind · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Horray for the Department of Homeland Security! LWATCDR is not the only person that has been saying "get off of IE" for a long time.

    Now the pressure is on Microsoft to get their shit together and make IE more secure, or risk losing their commanding lead in the web browser department. Even my dad, who would rather not use a computer than have to start using different programs, has asked me to put FireFox on his system. And my dad's boss, who is quite possibly one of the most computer illiterate people in the world, has expressed interest to him in moving the whole office off of IE onto another browser.

    It really says something for how widespread this news is. If I was MicroSoft, I would be scared at this point.

  2. Great News by devphaeton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "According to Wired, the widespread Internet Explorer security exploit last week and CERT's subsequent recommendation that IE users should consider switching to another browser has resulted in a large spike in downloads of the Mozilla Organization's Mozilla and Firefox web browsers."

    I hope that this also translates into a large spike of donations to the mozilla organization. Firefox and T-bird are teh moh scheezi, and i started using mozilla years ago.

    I've donated about $150 over the years, how bout y'all?

    --


    do() || do_not(); // try();
  3. Yeah Right by BigDork1001 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Homeland Security says to stop using IE but in the Air Force we're still using it and I haven't heard any plans to switch to something else. It's good to know that the DoD is listening to the security measures of the other departments.

    --
    "Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
  4. windows update at risk? by bratboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    my question is, if 1) there's no patch yet for IIS servers to defend against the attack, and 2) the microsoft update servers are all IIS, then how can we know that microsoft update hasn't been hacked? hmm? (oh the humanity!)

  5. Cool, just after a PHB here by mi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Instructed the internal webmaster team to ignore all other browsers -- to save valuable time and effort, of course. Which -- since they use Microsoft web tools only -- instantly led to the whole intranet web-site becoming disfunctional in Mozilla, Konqueror, and Opera.

    I objected and got called "Ayatollah of web-compliance" :-)

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Informative IE Links - IE Bashing Extraordinaire by qwasty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This browser warning page thoroughly trashes MSIE, but every phrase is linked to a news article that uses the exact same verbiage in order to demonstrate that it isn't just anti MS FUD - It's the honest truth. It's designed and maintained for webmasters to deliver to the IE-using visitors to their webpages. You can read the source code for some more information about that. In case you're curious, here's a paste of the text and links that it has - This should prove quite effective with anyone you're trying to convince to stop using IE:

    Warning!

    Your web browser - a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer - may not function properly on this website, and could have a large number of problems that allow hackers to hijack it with viruses. These viruses could be used by criminals to secretly take over your computer, download child-pornography, or to commit acts of terrorism and fraud. You may automatically update it now with Microsoft's available patches, however, there is a possibility that a necessary patch will not be available due to Microsoft's somewhat sluggish development schedule.

    The US Department of Homeland Security strongly suggests that you stop using Internet Explorer immediately.

    There are several standards-compliant web browsers that you may use instead of Internet Explorer. Please install one of them as a replacement.

    If you suspect that your computer is already being used for criminal activity, it is critical that you seek help from a computer professional in your local area. You may also try one of the free web-based virus scanners that are available.