03:10 PM
Internet Don't use Internet Explorer!

Using Internet Explorer? Going web surfing today? Protect yourself!

If you haven't heard before, there's a virus that's infecting websites run on Windows servers. Alot of large trusted sites do run on Windows servers, some banks use Windows servers as well as online stores and other sites. This virus can transmit itself thru any webpage on the infected server if the user is viewing the webpage in Internet Explorer. The virus works by embedding itself in every webpage hosted on the server and anytime someone using IE visits a site hosted on the infected server, the virus is delivered to the user's computer along with the webpage. There currently is NO patch for Internet Explorer to prevent this. And there's no simple way to know from looking at a website if it's hosted on a Windows or Linux server.

Most anti-virus programs do have updates out today that will detect this virus, so be sure to update your anti-virus program as soon as possible.

This virus is a keystroke logger so it'll capture anything you type, like logins and passwords to anywhere you visit, including your bank, your email, anything you type. All that info is sent to a server in Russia. The people investigating this virus believe it is tied to the Russian Mafia, it's custom written with the resources to handle the server traffic (see this CNet article and there were also articles on CNN and AOL News last night). The virus also opens a port from your computer to the Russian server which can be used for just about any purpose, sending out spam, accessing your hard drive, launching an attack on the internet, whatever. And you may not be aware that any of this is happening, especially if you have a cable or DSL internet connection, it'll happen in the background while you're working or whenever you've left your computer on.

For the best and safest web-surfing, simply don't use IE. Other browsers don't have the vast array of security flaws that IE does - if you pay attention to the news, new security holes are found in IE on a weekly basis, plus there's all the old ones if you haven't kept up with Windows updates to patch the holes that have been found and plugged.

So the best thing to do is use a different browser. It's not hard, there's several FREE options, all of which are easy to install and use.

For IE users, I recommend switching to Firefox, it looks and works like IE so the transition is easier and it will automatically import all your Favorites during the installation process. It's a friendly program too, it won't take up much space on your hard drive or eat up huge amounts of memory. And best of all, once you install it, you never have to mess with it again. You don't have to get updates to patch security holes, you can just use it day after day. The current version is 0.9 which is technically classed as a beta (or technology preview) but don't let that worry you, it's an extremely stable and reliable program and this version has been fully tested. I've been using Firefox since version 0.7 last winter and it's always been very stable.

For Netscape users, I recommend Mozilla, it looks and works like Netscape, in fact Netscape versions 6 + use Mozilla as the base of the program. If you're still using any version 6, especially version 6.0_, I highly recommend upgrading to Mozilla, version 6.0_ had various problems and issues that were fixed in later versions of both Netscape and Mozilla. If you're using Netscape 7.1, you don't have to wait for v7.2, you can switch to Mozilla v1.7 now - that's what Netscape v7.2 will be using.

For Netscape version 4 users, if you don't have a lot of hard drive space or memory (RAM), you may want to switch to Firefox because it is smaller and needs less memory, even tho it will look a bit different to you, for example, Edit > Preferences is Tools > Options or Tools > Themes or Tools > Extensions, depending on what you want. Normally I'd recommend Mozilla because it looks and works like Netscape but Mozilla is about twice the size of Firefox and uses more memory as well.

There's also Opera but one caveat, this one's not free like Firefox and Mozilla. You can pay for it or you can download the "free" version and pay for it by having ads displayed in the menu part of the browser. Other than that, it's a good, safe browser with good features.

While Mac users can't be infected by this virus, if you're using Internet Explorer, it's not really a very good browser. There are all sorts of problems with HTML web standards compliance so you might want to check out better alternatives. For OS X users, there's Safari and there's Camino from the Mozilla people. For Mac users on OS 9 or lower, there's Opera.