A
Art
Fair enough, but besides a little time checking for updates - which, of
course someone will always notify the groups - it isn't much effort, so why
not do it anyway?
I decided years ago to not go up the road of endless IE security
enhancements. It amazes me the extraordinary lengths some IE addicts
go to It's simply a unnecessary bother and not worth the effort,
IMO. Just say "no" to IE.
In that case I open FF and copy the link into it.
Is this going on Microsoft's track record; the assumption of many more
as-yet-undiscovered vulnerabilities?
No, it's based on known vulnerabilities (and maybe some exploits as
well) that MS has not patched in a very long time.
While I don't think you do this, it
seems to me that the impression many give who cite this assumption is of
alternative browsers not also being vulnerable. Luckily people also notify
the groups of the latest FF patch (new build). But only FF of the
alternatives, of course.
I'm quite aware of the long string of vulnerabilities that have been
found through the years with the Gecko and Opera browsers. I've
never heard of any actual exploits of _serious_ vulnerabilities ...
though that may start to happen in the future as FF and Opera continue
to make big gains in percentage of users. It's important to use the
latest versions, though Opera went downhill from version 6X to 7X
before recovering in 8X with no known vulnerabilities.
My recommendation to users is usually to use Firefox as default, but I know
that many users will simply not get on with it and revert to IE, so I try to
get them to do what I have done. Which gets back to my personally hardening
'as much as I can get away with' other people's machines - add to the above
list installing Kerio 2.1.5 and setting the rules up and/or closing
unnecessary ports - that is what I do.
?? Hardening should be done regardless. I don't think you meant that
to come across as a either/or proposition
Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg