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  • From: Sil Greene <Sil_greene AT unc.edu>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [internetworkers] new MS KB article actually helpful
  • Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:07:32 -0500 (EST)


Terrific article at slashdot (apologies to those who've already read it)
(additional apologies for the long link):
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/30/0428242.shtml?tid=113&tid=126&tid=133&tid=172&tid=186&tid=95


The story links to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 833786, Steps That You
Can Take to Help Identify and to Help Protect Yourself from Deceptive
(Spoofed) Web Sites and Malicious Hyperlinks:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5Bln%5D;833786


For those who don't know, this is about a bug in MS Internet Explorer
that fails to display some URLs (web addresses) properly. This means you
might think you were on one page at one site, but actually be on another
page on another site. This is bad -- especially when the site might be
asking for your username/password, your credit card number, or other
private information. It might look just like amazon.com, and in Internet
Explorer the address bar would say amazon.com, but in another browser the
address bar would show something different (maybe
amazon.com AT fooledyou.gotchervisanumbernow.com) ... There is no patch; the
KB article is Microsoft's entire advice about protecting yourself from
the problem.


The upshot of all this? Don't use Internet Explorer -- use something
(anything!) else. Mozilla, Firebird, Opera...
http://www.mozilla.org
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird
http://www.opera.com


And here's a tasty analogy from the slashdot crowd:

============================
Re:They can't be serious... (Score:5, Funny)
by danamania (540950) on Friday January 30, @06:08AM (#8133322)
---------------
To go back to an often used analogy, if Microsoft were a car company and
their vehicles happened to exhibit a problem with the engines catching on
fire (as happens, sometimes, with real car manufacturers) other makers
would recall and fix the problem.

Not microsoft!

They're innovative. They'd send a helpful sheet out to owners:

-----------------
Things you can do to protect yourself from an engine fire:

The most effective step you can take to protect yourself from an engine
fire caused by the known defect, is pushing your car manually. By pushing
your car manually, you can avoid creating the temperatures required to
initiate combustion. This will keep your car safe. Also, you can save fuel
and contribute to a cleaner environment.
----------------- :P


--
"If you put your supper dish to your ears you can hear the sounds
of a restaurant." --Snoopy (Charles Schultz 02-12-2000 RIP)
Sil_Greene AT unc.edu




  • [internetworkers] new MS KB article actually helpful, Sil Greene, 01/30/2004

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