June 25, 2004
Warning from Department of Homeland Security
Serious news today, including a warning from the department of Homeland Security.
The Despartment of Homeland Security warned Windows users Thursday night about a virus that can infect systems just by visiting a compromised web site. Hackers have been breaking into sites running Microsoft’s IIS web server and appending hidden Javascript to pages.
When users visit the page, the Javascript code loads malicious code hosted on a Russian server.
There’s quite a bit of panic over this particular exploit. CERT is telling users to turn off Javascript. “US-CERT recommends that end-users disable JavaScript unless it is absolutely necessary. Users should be aware that any web site, even those that may be trusted by the user, may be affected by this activity and thus contain potentially malicious code.” According to the Internet Storm Center several major sites have been compromised. There is currently no patch for the exploit, however you should update your anti-virus software immediately. Most AV software will detect the infection as the JS.Scob.Trojan.
Should you stay off the net today? CNET quotes Brent Houlihan, chief technology officer of NetSec, “I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now.”
Or use Mozilla. Or Firefox. Or Opera. Or Safari. Or anything but Internet Explorer. And by the way, IIS ain’t such a hot idea either.
UPDATE: Use Firefox ver 1.0. It was just released 9/15/04 and it’s a much better solutions for browsing webpages. The so-called Mozilla Firefox 1.0 is very stable — unlike most betas — and offers many advanced features that should put Microsoft on notice. But don’t take our word for it, try it here and stay tuned for our review of the final browser, which we expect soon. Note: as with all beta products, Firefox 1.0 Prerelease is not intended to replace your full-time browser software, so please install with caution.
This free program has more features than the most recent version of Internet Explorer. For example, Firefox 1.0 PR includes Live Bookmarks — a feature that allows you to receive RSS feeds within your browser — and a built-in Google search toolbar. Firefox also lets you view more than one Web page within a single open browser and has the most customisation options of any browser available. Like Internet Explorer, Firefox also includes a built-in pop-up blocker.
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