Do NOT use Internet Explorer anymore. Any version. You are at risk.
Microsoft has issued a security bulletin that all versions of Internet Explorer are vulnerable to a fatal security flaw that is being exploited now.
Summary article, from the Washington Post:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sec...y_hole_in.html
Quote:
On Wednesday,
Security Fix warned readers about a newly-discovered security hole in
Internet Explorer 7. I'm posting this again because Microsoft now says the flaw affects
all supported versions of IE, and because security experts are warning that a large number of sites are being compromised in an effort to exploit this vulnerability and install malware on vulnerable systems.
The
SANS Internet Storm Center reports that hackers are breaking into legitimate Web sites and uploading code that could install data-stealing software on the machine of a user who visits the site using Internet Explorer. SANS's chief technology officer
Johannes Ullrich estimates that thousands of sites have been seeded with this exploit to date.
Microsoft has suggested measures to patch IE to prevent this exploit, but they appear unreliable and have failed outright for a number of those who tested it.
Can your antivirus program protect you? Apparently not.
Quote:
And don't count on your anti-virus program to save you from these types of attacks. A scan of the exploit being served up by several of the hacked sites produced
atrocious results:
VirusTotal.com reported that only four out of the 32 anti-virus programs it used to scan the malware detected it as malicious or suspicious.
One of those 4 antivirus programs is Avira Antivir. For those who are interested, they have a free Workstation version available for download and private use.
In short, use anything other than IE for now - Firefox is most highly recommended with the NoScript add-on. When you install it, you have the option to import your bookmarks from IE so your favourite sites won't be lost.
Surf safe!
