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US and UK Governments Advise Avoiding Internet Explorer Until Bug Fixed
martiniturbide (1203660) writes "Reuters is reporting that 'The U.S. and UK governments on Monday advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used to launch attacks.' The article states that 'The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory released on Monday that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer could lead to "the complete compromise" of an affected system.'"
How are people going to download Firefox?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Downloading Mosaic as we speak!
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Just in time for XP to go out of support for most people, now you get this 'well publicized' bug that wont get patched, in effect. I expect only the latest version of IE to be patched, which will NOT run on XP even if you wanted to.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Numerous NYS web pages whos use is MANDATED for local government REQUIRES IE 8. For the Win7 machines (dictated by HIPPA as securable) we have to disable ActiveX security, add it to trusted sites, AND fire up the developer tools to get it into IE 7 compatability. The page I am specifically thinking of is the Department of Health... you know where all your medical records are.
Security is poorly spun illusion at this point. If the feds wanted the Internet to be secure then they should have reigned in the spooks in the beginning.
AC because my boss reads /.
My boss, in all his good business instincts and mostly great technical attributes, insists on installing java and downgrading all computers to ie9 instead of going with 11. Now I know 11 had issues with compatibility from time to time, but I am hard pressed to believe that running ie9 with Java is a great way to stay virus free.
Then again we are in the small business and home user repair market maybe he is just trying to go for reoccurring client repairs
If your position does not require use of a browser, use no browser until it is repaired. If your position requires use of a browser, print out the advisory at home and show it to your supervisor.
Don't buy garbage, stuff that works only in a specific version of a specific browser.
Three software products dominate a particular vertical market. When your employer chose to adopt one of these products, all three were garbage by your definition. Are you recommending that people in the affected industry resign en masse and retrain for a different industry?
90%+ plus, you can just set the user agent header in Seamonkey, Firefox, or Chrome to SAY it's IE and things work just fine.
Which works fine until an ActiveX control fails to load, or an IE-specific event listener fails to attach.
Couldn't they have just said "Don't use Internet Explorer, anytime, anywhere, ever?" That's so much easier.
You can dance if you want to.
I'd say Firefox with Adblock Plus, so they wont get fooled by malicious ads on sites.
> When your employer chose to adopt one
If your employer did that before you arrived, or over your strong objections, then you followed my advice - you didn't buy garbage. Unfortunately someone else did.
However, I've dealt with a few different businesses and can't think of such a situation where all three leading solutions are ActiveX / IE only. I can think of one where for the GUI, you had to choose between ActiveX, Java, or a local client. A network CLI was also available. I'm curious what case you have in mind?
If I ddid run into a theoretical situation where a critical piece of software would rely on ActiveX, and therefore put the enterprise at the mercy of changing IE versions, I'd look at the broader picture and evaluate the business processes that are setting up that risk.
I'm sorry you got fucked. To avoid putting yourself in that situation again, you might want to do two things. First, recognise that vendor lock-in is a risk to the enterprise, and that risk has an accountable cost. When you choose to be locked into TWO vendors, the software vendor AND a supported version of IE, your risk is the multiple of two components.
Secondly, when you find yourself in a situation where such a risk seems unavoidable, broaden your perspective to look at the business processes that create that context. Perhaps there is no acceptable software that meets the defined requirements. In that case, you can take another look at the requirements from a broader enterprise perspective.
As you may know, I've been running businesses for 25 years, and we've NEVER put ourselves in the position of sole-vendor risk like that. It takes forethought, but it absolutely is possible to avoid that situation.
Don't confuse a partial reading of the page with the full text, which goes on to say:
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
All of them. Numerous embedded systems are built around IE for UK government - I know this for a fact as I'm working for them at the moment.
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'