German government warns against using MS Explorer

[Nick29]

Surely the REAL cause for concern should be what else you have protecting your computer ?  You can't rely on just your browser, because even Firefox has had its fair share of security patches.

I'm quite bemused that people can worry so much about the choice of browser, and so little about what else they have on their system to prevent attack from outside.  I'm not having a go at anyone in this thread in particular, but you only have to read the technical forum here for a week or so to realise that the majority have minimal firewalling.

[falcybe]

I agree with Nick29, downside and Falkryn,

And to quote stevieuk

I can see your point with that comment its all Open Source, but if thats your view then I presume you have  the same view of the Linux O/S which is also Open Source, which is a very secure O/S?

I agree with your question mark. From Wikipedia, two quotes:

Linux distributions are maintained by individuals, loose-knit teams, volunteer organizations, and commercial entities. A distribution is responsible for the default configuration of the installed Linux kernel, general system security, and more generally integration of the different software packages into a coherent whole

distributions may be specialized for different purposes including: computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, etc.

So Linux in itself is not secure, it has to be made so, like IE, by people, just like people who work for IE.

What I am confident about is that with all the years of attack against the world's most popular browser, IE's software (and hardware design?) people are highly tuned to understanding new attacks and repelling them and I would prefer having people like them protecting my pc long term.

And what do we want from security? Just look at how easy it is for a simple-minded person to hack into the USA government's system; and how they are too cowardly to take the blame for the security holes of their own making so wish to extradite and prosecute the boy who said "look, the emperor has no clothes on"!

At the end of the day, security begins at home, how you browse and how you set your system up. I haven't had one trojan or other nasty since my daughters have grown up and left home  If you want to describe my browsing: call me boring but call me safe 

cheers, falcybe

[stevieuk]

Surely the REAL cause for concern should be what else you have protecting your computer ?  You can't rely on just your browser, because even Firefox has had its fair share of security patches.

I'm quite bemused that people can worry so much about the choice of browser, and so little about what else they have on their system to prevent attack from outside.  I'm not having a go at anyone in this thread in particular, but you only have to read the technical forum here for a week or so to realise that the majority have minimal firewalling.

100% agreed.....

There is no excuse for not having Antivirus & Firewalls installed along with a few other anti Mallware & Anti spyware programs installed.........All are available for Free. Plus a bit of common sense which doesn`t cost anything either....

The Browser is just one part of your security, Yes Firefox has had a few scares, but they`ve been patched fairly quickly or a warning on how to stop the exploit whilst a patch/fix is brought out.

The choice of browser will always be a heated debate in the same way as Mac v PC, Windows v OSX v Linux, Ford v Vauxhall v other makes & so on & so forth....

But today at this moment there is a known security flaw with IE, so do you run at the highest setting on IE security (which isn`t a guarantee of safety) & lose functionallity or do you swap browser, personally I`d use a different browser until MS gets around to fixing the problem.... You can have as many browsers installed as you want.

[stevieuk]

At the end of the day, security begins at home, how you browse and how you set your system up. I haven't had one trojan or other nasty since my daughters have grown up and left home 

Ditto...since our 2 lads left home...Sunday morning was always a run scan for Viri, Spyware etc on their PC...got real peeved off in the end..long story...but it did end, had a few Hissy fits/strops/slamming doors etc, but at least I could have a lay in on Sunday morning...never let them near my PC...

If you want to describe my browsing: call me boring but call me safe 

cheers, falcybe

I wouldn`t describe my browsing as Safe, but I don`t do Porn (in any form) or anything like that, I do frequent some sites that might be considered nefarious sites by some.

Steve

[macbeth]

Surely the REAL cause for concern should be what else you have protecting your computer ?  You can't rely on just your browser, because even Firefox has had its fair share of security patches.

I'm quite bemused that people can worry so much about the choice of browser, and so little about what else they have on their system to prevent attack from outside.  I'm not having a go at anyone in this thread in particular, but you only have to read the technical forum here for a week or so to realise that the majority have minimal firewalling.

100% agreed.....

There is no excuse for not having Antivirus & Firewalls installed along with a few other anti Mallware & Anti spyware programs installed.........All are available for Free. Plus a bit of common sense which doesn`t cost anything either....

The Browser is just one part of your security, Yes Firefox has had a few scares, but they`ve been patched fairly quickly or a warning on how to stop the exploit whilst a patch/fix is brought out.

The choice of browser will always be a heated debate in the same way as Mac v PC, Windows v OSX v Linux, Ford v Vauxhall v other makes & so on & so forth....

But today at this moment there is a known security flaw with IE, so do you run at the highest setting on IE security (which isn`t a guarantee of safety) & lose functionallity or do you swap browser, personally I`d use a different browser until MS gets around to fixing the problem.... You can have as many browsers installed as you want.

Totally agree with Stevie and Nick - it's all just part of your overall security strategy. It's like shopping - buyer beware - it is up to you to do all this. The downside is of course you need to be a bit techie - in a perfect world computer security would be like a fridge:
door opens, light comes on and beer be cold - that's all you should have to know. We forget this technology is but an infant, come back in 200 years and see what it's like - wish I could :-)

[stevieuk]

I agree with Nick29, downside and Falkryn,

And to quote stevieuk

I can see your point with that comment its all Open Source, but if thats your view then I presume you have  the same view of the Linux O/S which is also Open Source, which is a very secure O/S?

I agree with your question mark. From Wikipedia, two quotes:

Linux distributions are maintained by individuals, loose-knit teams, volunteer organizations, and commercial entities. A distribution is responsible for the default configuration of the installed Linux kernel, general system security, and more generally integration of the different software packages into a coherent whole

distributions may be specialized for different purposes including: computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, etc.

So Linux in itself is not secure, it has to be made so, like IE, by people, just like people who work for IE.

What I am confident about is that with all the years of attack against the world's most popular browser, IE's software (and hardware design?) people are highly tuned to understanding new attacks and repelling them and I would prefer having people like them protecting my pc long term.

cheers, falcybe

So I presume you feel Open Source Software is Insecure & a Risk?

People don`t work for IE....They work for Microsoft.

IE is Software, nowt to do with Hardware design.

[downside]

do you swap browser

No Steve, us IE8 users will carry on using our 'unsafe browser' and completely ignore the paranoid hysteria surrounding this over-the-top story. 

[stevieuk]

do you swap browser

No Steve, us IE8 users will carry on using our 'unsafe browser' and completely ignore the paranoid hysteria surrounding this over-the-top story. 

I`m not telling anyone to change, just giving my honest opinion, I`m sure everyone is confident in Microsoft`s ability to protect them...

Some stats..... seems IE isn`t the all conquering Browser....Been losing ground for a while....always downhill.... granted Firefox has a bit of a dip, but Chrome is out now.....It`ll be interesting to see what happens when Chrome O/S (think thats what it`ll be called?) is released, another alternative to MS`s O/S....

Worldwide
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-200812-201001
Europe
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-eu-monthly-200812-201001
Germany
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-DE-monthly-200812-201001
UK
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-GB-monthly-200812-201001
USA
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-US-monthly-200812-201001

[downside]

So Linux in itself is not secure it has to be made so

I'm not sure what that means but Unix/Linux is one of the safest operating systems in the world and few would disagree with that.  It doesn't need to be made safe, because the people that wrote the original code made it safe right from its inception.  Windows has been a dumbed down version of Unix/Linux for many years but it is finally trying to catch up in respect of system security.  Of course Linux does not have a C drive and most users do not login as Root (Administrator) so when they are browsing  there is no need to worry about malware because it is written to run in a Windows environment.  VB script and other Windows type of code doesn't work on Linux and even if you could download some Linux script you would still need to logged on as Root to run it.

The easy way to make any computer secure when surfing the Internet is to launch a browser using a limited user account rather than run it with Administration privileges.