German Govt: Quit using Internet Explorer immediately

[chickenhead]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/german_governments_warns_citizens_not_to_use_inter net_explorer.php

After Operation Aurora, German Government Says Don't Use Internet Explorer

Every machine running Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 on virtually every modern Windows operating system is affected by this vulnerability. In an unprecedented move, the German government has now told its citizens to avoid using Internet Explorer for the time being.

This new generation of malware is highly targeted and "designed to infect, conceal access, siphon data or, even worse, modify data without detection."

According to the German government, users should switch to alternative browsers, as other hackers will surely start to exploit this same vulnerability within days.

[chickenhead]

and, the real kicker...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1690

Ballmer doesn't get why Google is upset about attacks

“There are attacks every day. I don’t think there was anything unusual,”

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9145279/Chinese_authorities_behind_Google_attack_researche r_claims

According to Carlos Carrillo, a principal consultant for Mandiant, a Washington D.C.-based security incident response and forensics firm, the attack against Google last month was "definitely one of the most sophisticated attacks I've seen in the last few years."

Mandiant was called in by Google to look into the attack, and Carrillo was the project manager for the Google investigation. During an interview Friday, he frequently chose his words carefully, saying that there was much he couldn't discuss because the work was ongoing.

"The malware was unique," Carrillo said. "It had unique characteristics ... it was ... let's just say it was unique."

"We've never seen anything this good in the commercial space. In [attacks on] government, yes, but not commercial."

It's really amazing what a douche bag Ballmer is, and that he's running the most powerful SW company in the world. Just amazing.

Whatever is going on, I wish I was privvy too -- because I think its probably unbelievably fascinating. There is some bad stuff floating around out there. Bad enough to seriously freak Google out.

[skate]

Well it stands to reason, if you're gonna hack, do IE.

I think i saw an outfit from Japan marketing a replacement.

I do see that IE uses a parade of updates and i suspect others will also be hacked.

[chickenhead]

Well it stands to reason, if you're gonna hack, do IE.

I think i saw an outfit from Japan marketing a replacement.

I do see that IE uses a parade of updates and i suspect others will also be hacked.

Sure, you get a bit of a free lunch by not using IE. The problem for people that are currently using IE, is this exploit is out in the wild now, its been passed around on all the hacker sites, and until Microsoft issues an update, which they havent, IE6 IE7 and IE8 are wide open. Anti-virus SW does no good.

[bigmack]

After a review of the official statement I see little reason to pursue the issue further. :rolleyes:

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u70/macktime/10-2.jpg

[skate]

Sure, you get a bit of a free lunch by not using IE. The problem for people that are currently using IE, is this exploit is out in the wild now, its been passed around on all the hacker sites, and until Microsoft issues an update, which they havent, IE6 IE7 and IE8 are wide open. Anti-virus SW does no good.

Just my assumption, i would think, since they (MS) keep ongoing daily with updates, that the updates would be their Anti-Hacker method.

That also assumes, they are a day short.

[DJofSD]

and, the real kicker...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1690

Ballmer doesn't get why Google is upset about attacks



http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9145279/Chinese_authorities_behind_Google_attack_researche r_claims



It's really amazing what a douche bag Ballmer is, and that he's running the most powerful SW company in the world. Just amazing.

Whatever is going on, I wish I was privvy too -- because I think its probably unbelievably fascinating. There is some bad stuff floating around out there. Bad enough to seriously freak Google out.
This just underscores the lack of seriousness at MS when it comes to security issues. Before the wonderkin left, he promised MS would take security more seriously. Ha! Security at MS is like closing the barn door after the horses have left the barn.

[chickenhead]

well, I guess we can call this proactive. Miscrosoft officially requests users to quit using IE6 and XP because they are unsafe.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/01/microsoft-wants-you-to-ditch-windows-xp-and-ie6-for-security.ars

Still, this is the first time we've seen Microsoft actually recommend users upgrade because of a specific flaw, and not just away from IE6 but away from Windows XP completely. Microsoft doesn't say that newer versions of Internet Explorer and later Windows releases are invulnerable to the flaw, but it does explain that they have "reduced risk to the exploit" due to platform mitigations such as IE Protected Mode and Data Execution Prevention.

[bigmack]

I love this company. Who said sit down?
('Music' provided by Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine) Woo!

wvsboPUjrGc

[letswastemoney]

People use IE because it comes preinstalled and they don't realize what their options are.

So I think that because Microsoft automatically gets such a large share of the web browsing population, they're not as motivated to make theirs the best one considering people will use IE no matter how bad they make it.

Firefox ftw!

[Robert Goren]

On my first computer, the browser was Netscape. IE was a huge improvement.