Mozilla: safer than Internet Explorer?
Trying to keep up with the patches that are constantly issued by Microsoft is always an issue, especially for those users who have dialup accounts. If you wonder about the explosive growth in DSL and cable access to the Internet, one factor could be the time it takes to download patches and Service Packs (the latter of which are usually nearly equivalent of loading a third of a CD or more).
All of these problems take the form of ultimately handing over control of your machine to a hacker who has gained access via the Internet and runs some code that circumvents whatever protections are in place, without your knowledge. It's always a game of catchup, and it's unlikely ever to end. It adds a level of inconvenience, expense, and worry to the use of the Internet.
The latest vulnerability doesn't have a patch, as of this writing. Instead, you are advised to change the security level settings on your Internet Explorer Internet Options page. If you try this, you'll be facing a list of incomprehensibly brief menu choices that are meaningless to most users. A person of little experience with a computer has to rely on Microsoft's default settings, which are explained here.
Not having your browser inextricably tied into the operating system as IE is to Windows is an advantage in this hackered world of the Internet. One of the alternatives you might try is the Open Source browser, Mozilla. While all software is vulnerable, the Open Source community of programmers worldwide has a much better response time when problems are discovered.
There's a new browser in the Mozilla family as well, Firebird, so named for its speed. The overall list of features is more comprehensive on both of these than for IE, (tabbed browse windows, popup and popunder suppression and encrypted logging, to name a few).
Mon Dec-01-2003