Originally Posted by Catweazle
I'm also not 'buying' the claim, that " Problem is that most people don't set up their browser correctly". I've just had this discussion elsewhere, on a different topic, where a professional PC technician was attacking my colleagues and myself for freely offering people hardware advice and assistance.
just another example of the ¨guild theory¨. These people think that just because they chose this as a profession, everybody else should roll over and pay them their pound of flesh. I´m not saying that their work should not be paid for. But to force someone to use a technician is getting away from the freedom and choice that the computer movement started with. It´s getting so bad that when you go out and pay for some software, after a time, when you ask for support, the manufacturer leads you down the garden support path on his web site or phone support page until you get to the point of asking the question and they say: ¨Please deposit $30 and we will answer your question¨. (couldn´t help commenting on this:rolleyes: )
Originally Posted by Catweazle
When you view a website you download code onto your system. If 'hidden' within that code is some which is malicious in nature, you want to be damn sure that it's kept isolated from the innermost workings of your machine. Nowadays, such 'hidden' code can be so sophisticated that it is triggered off by the fact that you've displayed a single pixel in an image on a web page!
Most of the 'net nasties' are advertising related, and this, zeroth, might go some way to explaining why your wife's system attracts more 'nasties' than yours. Her computing habits are doubtless different to yours, and they may expose her to more risk of infection than you experience. An advertisement might spark her curiousity, a 'close' button on an advertising box may be something else in disguise. There will definitely be differences in the places you visit and the way you interact with them.
Thanks, that´s enlightening and well put! Is there not a program out there that can examine key strokes and protect, for example, against clicking on a button disguised as something it´s not? It would seem to take only a comparison of what the website is about, what the buttom is supposed to do and the code hidden behind the button to keep us from making a mistake that could cost the computer´s integrity. (I realize I´m simplifying things but you get the point). If these guys can exploit us in the ways you have described, I would think that someone could make a lucrative enterprise out of an add-on that would protect us to some extent.
Originally Posted by Catweazle
Change browsers, people, and do it NOW!
But what about stuff like Crunchie reported in his thread ¨Another exploit found in FireFox¨? I use FF on a couple of computers and this makes me feel as unsafe as you have made me feel about IE. What´s one to do...
