Internet Explorer users should switch to another browser - governments recommend

[AussieNeil]

Until Microsoft patches this latest Flash related Internet Explorer vulnerability (that's ALL IE versions on ALL Microsoft operating systems), users are recommended to switch to another browser by the governments of USA, UK and Sweden.

Microsoft have confirmed that this security flaw is already being exploited and have advised a number of ways this exploit can be mitigated - one of which is disabling Flash. A specially crafted flash file on a web server can be used by a hacker to gain the same rights to change your computer that you have. That's very bad news if you run with administrator rights. Even with standard user rights, all of your files could be corrupted or deleted for example.

Windows XP users will never have this vulnerability patched

Details:

zdnet.com/governments-urge-...

Microsoft provide regular software updates every month, with the next release scheduled for May 13th. They may issue a patch for this serious exploit before then.

Neil

Picture: Ants preparing for stormy weather. How good are your defences?

[manzelka]

I have always used firefox. I don't think there are any problems with that or at least i haven't heard of any.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to manzelka]

All browsers have security problems which they patch in updates (and inevitably introduce new bugs with new features). Quite a few years back a comparison was done between Internet Explorer and Firefox over a year to see which had the least days with known unpatched security flaws. Firefox won that particular comparison soundly, but it too has had some shocking bugs at times, that have required rapid patching.

Version 28 of Firefox has been our for a few weeks now; who hasn't upgraded yet?

From the Firefox Menu.... Help --- About Firefox

Neil - a Firefox user from when it replaced Mozilla

[Tiredparent]

Many thanks for your advice - have installed firefox rather than IE

Regards

Rosie

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

Happy 50th BASIC... IF THEN ELSE ...GOTO

time.com/69316/basic/#

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to Cllcanada]

And here's the shortened version zdnet.com/50-years-after-ba...

I remember well the 'fights' over getting access to a terminal during uni days. Much more fun than dropping a deck of FORTRAN cards...

[Mikey47 in reply to AussieNeil]

Me too It was a fight over the BBC Micros (Not really, we had to book them) Also FORTRAN on them. I did, however do a ONC in electronics later and PASCAL programming.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Mikey47]

I learned BASIC on a Sinclair ZX81... not too much different in format than my iPad! Tiny...

Oh how I yearned for the 16K ram pack... never got it... moved on to an Apple II

[zevkalman in reply to Cllcanada]

I remember the Sinclair. Never had one though, but I wish I did. I learned Basic on an old teletype computer we had in high school. Knowing Basic helped me to learn Fortran on the old punch cards--wow, that was a long time ago. No one uses those languages anymore, of course. At work we all use Python and Java, and sometimes C.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to zevkalman]

Ultimately this was my BASIC written by WOZ for the Apple ][ gizmodo.com/how-steve-wozni...

Then went on to FutureBasic or RealBasic both still run on Maverick

used everyday...

Check out this demo APP from XOJO, (realBasic) fully object oriented basic...

demos.xojo.com/EEWeb/#10046

BASIC on the iPad... full sensor suite

prweb.com/releases/2013/1/p...

[Mikey47 in reply to Cllcanada]

Never had a Sinclair, my first PC was an Amstrad 512K, no hard disk, ran on DOS 3.0 from a 5.25" floppy disk.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Microsoft issued a fix for the Internet Explorer zero day security flaw today.

"[UPDATE] An emergency out-of-band update was released today for the bug in Internet Explorer being exploited in the wild. Windows XP was patched in spite of being past its service life."

Shows how seriously Microsoft consider this Internet Explorer bug to be.