Finland Issues IE 6 Warning 22
loconet writes "ZDNet UK reports that The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority have warned computer users
against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 web browser as it has a serious
security flaw that compromises computer systems. Microsoft has yet to announce when it will release a patch for the vulnerability, which does not affect XP SP2 users but does affect Windows 2000 users and XP SP1 users. The vulnerability was published at the beginning of November."
on aftonbladet.se (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I'll be the first to say it... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.getfirefox.com/ [getfirefox.com]
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ [spreadfirefox.com]
Who'd use IE? (Score:1, Interesting)
That's what? The 1000000th time a 'big' institiution has said to use something other then shiternet exploder?
Few would use MSIE after learning about others (Score:4, Interesting)
The demand is out there. Whenever I show or tell about the options avaiable, the non-tech people ask afterwards why haven't they received this information earlier.
Perhaps one reason for the decision by the Finnish agencies to advise against MSIE and for Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc. is to compensate for harm done from the computer "security" campaign [tietoturvaopas.fi] earlier this year, which amounted to nothing more than a state funded 8-page, 4-color MS ad delivered to every home, apartment or dorm in the country. Telling die hard Chairman Bill fans to update and patch is one thing, but neglecting to even name other options appears to fall somewhere between irresponsible/incompetent and graft.
Maybe this will lead to discussion of other useful tools and operating systems. Obviously, Mozilla, Firefox and Opera are drop in replacements. Likewise, MS-Outlook has a worse track record than MSIE and should be shunned in favor of Eudora, Mozilla, Thunderbird, etc. Home users that just want a computers that works should look at OS X, though I bet there would be a good cottage industry in upgrading old x86 machines to a Linux or BSD distro.
There are also issues like file incompatibility, technological obsolesence, and platform lock-in that those and options like OOo [openoffice.org] avoid.
Re:Few would use MSIE after learning about others (Score:2, Insightful)
Preaching to the dumb (Score:4, Funny)
Loosely translated: "If you are not using Windows XP, or installing SP2 is not possible, you can also use a different Internet-browser, until the vulnerability is patched."
This is still far from saying "DON'T USE IE, YOU MORONS!"
My own family was an example of how these suddle ways of trying to make people to care about computer security don't work.
Re:Preaching to the dumb (Score:1)
Re:Preaching to the dumb (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Preaching to the dumb (Score:2)
Indeed. I've never seen a Monty Python reference get modded down. What kind of nerds are they, anyway, these particular Slashdotters? I'd revoke their nerd cards, if I could.
Harsher words (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine seeing harsher words from security firms like,"Internet Explorer is a virus vector" or "Internet Explorer makes Windows an unsafe OS."
Harsher words may prompt harsher actions. The realization of IE's entanglement with Windows may finally be officially recognized as a problem and not an enhancement or innovation.
Re:Harsher words (Score:2)
Like it needs any help with that (or isn't already).
Oh wait, is this, by any chance, the same Internet Explorer that Microsoft (and its key executives) claimed under sworn testimony in US v. MS was a fundamental part of their OS that could not be removed due to it been responsible for much of the basic OS functionality? Hmmm...I wonder?
(Not that this is really a problem for Microsoft as they regularly directly contradict themselves in quick succession--even
This is funny:-) (Score:1, Funny)
Looks like Microsoft PR department has also heeded to the warning
Why are these small countries always so far ahead? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why are these small countries always so far ahe (Score:1)
This just in..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This just in..... (Score:2)
Is this story true? (Score:2)
I cannot find anything on The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority's WWW site about it, and (thanks to timothy not even looking articles he posts links to) the text in the story, "warned computer users against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6" links to an article which doesn't even *mention* the warni