“The ongoing Internet-security freakout for anybody using Windows keeps getting worse. Every other week yet another part of the online world gets a warning label slapped on it — downloads, e-mail attachments, instant-messaging file transfers and now Web pages themselves,” Rob Pegoraro writes for The Washington Post.
“‘Browser hijacking’ is as bad as it gets: Like the Blaster worm, this form of trickery can take over your software silently and invisibly. Typically, users discover what has happened only after the actual hijacking: Their Internet Explorer home page and Web searches have been switched to strange sites, a flock of pop-up windows follows them around, their lists of favorite sites have become a catalogue of porn purveyors — and none of these changes can be undone without tedious debugging,” Pegoraro writes.
“These attacks differ from ‘spyware’ invasions, which can have similar effects, in that victims never took the conscious step of downloading a program and then running its installer. In some cases, the only mistake a user made was to click an ‘OK’ button to allow what they thought was a change in home-page settings or an addition of a Web toolbar — not knowing that the site would do much more than that,” Pegoraro writes. “This can be an understandable error when you look at the ways sites attempt to fool users; the sleaziest sites won’t include a ‘no thanks’ button in their pop-up alerts and will prevent users from closing these windows.
“I’ve yet to see any reports of Mac or Linux browser hijacks,” Pegoraro writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The difference between Mac OS X’s default web browser, Apple’s Safari, and Windows’ default web browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, illustrates why “building the browser into Windows” is not in the best interests of users. 90+ percent of the world uses a substandard POS browser thanks to Microsoft’s monopoly abuse. Their users are punished, as most don’t even realize there are alternatives – unfortunately for them, arguably the world’s best browser, Apple’s Safari, runs only on Mac OS X, but there are better browsers than IE for Windows available. Shouldn’t Microsoft have to pay in some meaningful way for this at some point? And what do you think Microsoft’s forcing Windows Media Player on the Windows Sufferers
Impugnity! Yes, that’s what Apple lets me do. It empowers me rather than cripples me. The funniest part of the article described above is how long and tortured his explanations are. And how they still don’t protect you completely. Turn off Active X? Ha, try surfing for more than ten minutes and watch IE tell you 100 times it’s being prevented from doing something. It’s hilarious, and telling, that he said so little about Linux and Mac OS X. No mention of Safari, closed ports, security, viruses, etc. That’s his way of making a living, I guess.
NEW MAC USER CHANT: class action suit against Microsoft, class action suit, class action suit, class action suit, NOW NOW NOW.
really, spread the word as MDN says.
Class action suit, class action suit, class action suit, spraypaint complaints on city streets, hold signs demanding action, class action suit. Email every writer you come across, every newspaper, every op-ed piece, everyone. You want to help Apple? Forget switch campaign, iTunes, all of that.
Class action suit NOW NOW NOW.
Gates just needs to license OS X for Intel, drop Windows competely.
Your already the world’s richest man Billy, why don’t you do the world a favor?
Hmmm?
G5 Support Site
Yeah, michael, every time I tinker with security stuff on my wife’s PC I can’t believe how painfully obscure it is… and you know there’s always *something* that’s still vulnerable. Plus who can keep track of what they’ve done in case it ever needs to be undone/redone? What a nightmare.
This one’s not for class action. I like it when Windows users suffer. Apple’s doing just fine serving those of us that appreciate them. Let the rest rot in their own, self-induced computer pergatory.
Me? I tell them about how good it is, but I never tell them to change. Macintosh is the computer only for the discriminating users, us.
“90+ percent of the world” gee they must be doing something right.
maybe apple needs to expand it’s market and market OS X for x86 hardware. then maybe more of you apple zealots would start getting hacked too.
If Microsoft is doing something right it has nothing to do with building safe, secure, and robust operating systems. Sure, they’re incredibly smart when it comes to marketing — to the point of competing unfairly.
Linux is virtually virus free by design. Windows has always been a cobbled together and messy beast, beginning with Microsoft’s first attempts to copy the look and feel of the Macintosh operating system (Windows 3.1). Windows has improved over the years but it’s still full of holes, crash prone, and nearly impossible to troubleshoot.
Not only is Linux incredibly stable and virtually virus free (I believe one ineffective virus has been written), it’s also free. It comes with a ton of free software and today’s Linux can be used by most any home user instead of Windows. Install OpenOffice.org (a free, Microsoft Office compatible office suite) and the Mozilla browser (also free) and you’ve got a great replacement for Windows.
michael sez: “Ha, try surfing for more than ten minutes and watch IE tell you 100 times it’s being prevented from doing something.”
Never happened to me or anybody else I know.
Heck, when I had OS9 on my mac it seemed like it was crashing evey 15 minutes. Glad 10 came out, but have no problems with XP on our pcs.
——————
Bill Pollock sez “Not only is Linux incredibly stable and virtually virus free…you’ve got a great replacement for Windows.”
And a replacement for Macintosh….
There are currently at least 24 Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs for which Microsoft has not released an update to fix.
http://www.safecenter.net/UMBRELLAWEBV4/ie_unpatched/index.html
http://seclists.org/lists/bugtraq/2004/Feb/0661.html
It is looking like 2004 is going to be the “Year of insecurity” for Microsoft.
Tell us again Billy how windows is more secure cuz it gets cracked, wormed and virused all the time.
You can fool (almost) all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time…..
Heck, when I had OS9 on my mac it seemed like it was crashing evey 15 minutes.
OS9 is a really good OS, which I still prefer to OSX. Doesn’t sound like you knew what you were doing. The only problems I ever have are due to IE, which are pretty rare, something like 2-3 months apart.
Safari won’t be a truly great browser until it supports Liveconnect for plugins.
maybe apple needs to expand it’s market and market OS X for x86 hardware.
Apple is still waiting for the maximum dissatisfaction among Windows users to choose the time to pounce. It’s building every day.
neomonkey, OS 9 is crap.
Type 11 errors?
Extension conflicts?
Unimplemented trap errors?
Mac OS X not only beats 9 into the ground, it dances merrily on its grave. Pre-emptive multitasking, built-in networking services that 9 couldn’t touch with a pole, protected memory, a window compositing system that blows the doors off of everything else out there, and Unix under the hood (hello, Apache, PHP, and Perl, it’s nice to meet you).
At the same time, it puts WinXP to shame. The compositing system (Windows won’t have that until 2005 or 2006, and we’ve had it since 2001), much tighter security, the virus advantage (0 to 1,135,427,136,857,876,248,740 viruses), the lack of a browser that’s too integrated to remove (which sucks when it’s full of holes), and an interface that isn’t cluttered with every bad MDI convention one can think of.
We might pay a couple of hundred more for our hardware, but we get an OS that gives us our money’s worth and more.
OS X is incredibly stable and TOTALLY virus free, why would I choose to replace it?
The Mac has ALWAYS be far better than any Microsoft OS!
If people want to torture themselves and waste all their time and money being abused by Microsoft, why should we give a damn?
The whole PC world is based on a pack of lies about both Microsoft and Apple products. If people are too prjudiced, stupid, lazey or whatever else to look after themselves after all this time I say they deserve what they get.
Interestingly people I know who are still hanging on desperately regularily loose all their data and backups seldom work so they’re simply screwed. Reinstalling everything is a regular occurance. Nobody has the guts to add anything that isn’t Microsoft and who could possibly keep up with virus and patches? I have given up sending any attachments to the poor PC users even when they ask for something it always takes several resends before they have it due to a whole cast of programs screwing with their mail or accidently trashing the attachment or crashes etc.
Who but a moron would stay in such a place?
Okay, I have both a Mac running OS X and Dell running XP on my desk.
wtf, if you knew what browser integration was you’d know that Safari is just as integrated into Panther as IE into XP. That said, IE 5.2 for the Mac is still a more pleasant browsing experience than IE 6.patch99biliion on XP.
I love my porn sites, especially free porn, but half of those are designed to drop trojan horses on your machine. Safari makes my porn viewing safe. How Windows users are able to see nekkid pix are beyond me.
othersideofthecoin, you’re right IE/Win has never told me that it’s being prevented from doing something, IE/Win always does whatever the website I’m viewing wants regardless of whether that’s what I want.
Wrong.
I can delete Safari’s app package and nothing happens. The WebKit/Core framework isn’t really Safari so much as it’s just a rendering engine. In fact, if you delete that, aside from one or two programs which use the KHTML libraries not being able to render such content (iTMS), nothing bad happens to the machine, and nothing complains.
WebKit/Core isn’t so integrated that without it, I can’t run my OS. That’s the difference.
Use what works for you and get a life …
So OS9 was crash prone – Apple dumped it and built something new, to the point where they now have an OS that is the most stable in the industry – that from independent studies.
How long are the pc drones going to continue to defend Micros**t when the plain obvious truth about the company contradicts them?
The fact is they do it because they think they’re stuck with it. Blinded by some perverse kind of ‘loyalty’ they handcuff themselves to their abuser and keep taking the abuse.
The ship is full of holes. Shut the bilge pumps down and get off. All you’re doing is financing a company that has proven beyond doubt that it is not willing to play fairly in the marketplace.
I have removed every trace of Micros**t from all my computers. I now lead a bug/virus/critical flaw/security alert/cntrlatldelete free life. My computers are not perfect, but I am no longer willing to pay for Micros**t lawyers (hint- they lose or settle in 95% of the cases). You can’t defend the indefensible.
Now what was that about class action…
Safari is not integrated with the OS, it’s bundled, yes, but it hasn’t been tied in to force people to use it. You can delete the Safari App and it’s gone. The webcore library (which you could also delete without affecting the OS) even allows other browsers the option to use it as their rendering engine! I fail to see how that could be likened to how M$ has forced that POS IE onto end users.
As for class action suits, isn’t it about time legislation was passed or a legal precedent was set to stop software companies using that ‘get out of jail free card’ known as an EULA. After all, I never signed an agreement when I handed over my money, and once the box is opened (so you can read it) they won’t accept the returned software. Furthermore, in any other areas of life, you can’t absolve yourself of all responsibility just by writing up some piece of legal junk, how come software companies get away with it? MS should have been held accountable for all it’s shoddy software, but they don’t even get punished for actions that have already been found to be illegal.
Uuuurgh, I don’t know why I bother. Where could I go to get away from this ever-increasingly stupid world?
When I told one of my Windows using friends that os X had no viruses or trojans, I don’t think he believed me. When you know only one thing (windows) I guess it hard to think there could be something better. I think he is more interested in macs now, (he is a musician) but his little brother is a pro-windows nut (he builds his own computers) so it will be hard to get him to switch. On a better note one of my other musician friends recently got his first ibook, I didn’t even know he was getting a new computer, yeah!!!
I would like to send you some links to publications about my criminal case. I was forced to confess for possession of child porn.
This is publication in Wired news
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63391,00.html
This is publication in Theregester
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/13/browser_hijacking_risks/
This is article in Washington Times, May 22, 2004
There is information about my case.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040521-084242-5633r.htm
This is publication in Globe and Mail
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040617.gttwhijac17/BNStory/Technology/
This is my story in [url=http://www.inquisition21.com]http://www.inquisition21.com[/url]
http://www.inquisition21.com/article~view~7~page_num~3.html