IE VS Firefox (ActiveX & JavaScript)

[Jeremy]

Clicky the linky

[LLXX]

Just disable ActiveX and JavaScript...

The moral, said Levy, is: "If you browse, you're eventually going to get hit with a spyware attack."

Wrong! With 5 years experience of No Infection with properly configured IE 6.0 and visiting many sites, that is false! Only if you don't know how to configure your browser properly.

[mark]

Everyone gets hit with attacks eventually. Wether they are successful or not is the difference. I run FF with the 'NoScript' extension. I give each site permission based on how safe I feel the sight to be. Vids and swf files, I download if I can. I don't like it when they do a redirect so I run them on a program that has no permission to connect to the net. I don't know enough about the contents of these things and for me, the possibility seems to be there that something could be transported in with them. I give each the hairy eyeball and make a choice. It's the same with anything in Windows for me. If it doesn't get used then I will try to turn it off, unplug it or delete it.

DL

[Jeremy]

Just disable ActiveX and JavaScript...

Remember a lot of people like chatting online, viewing little porno webcams, Yahoo games, etc... and those things require either ActiveX or JavaScript. IE still has 80+% of the market and people are generally stupid. They want functionality, they aren't aware of the security risks, if it works, great.

[nmX.Memnoch]

I guarantee you that nearly every person who gets hit with Spyware from browsing habits is either browsing porn or doing online gambling...and more often than not they're doing both. Most times they won't admit to it...but it doesn't take much searching of their machine to find out the truth. I don't even ask anymore.

The whole "IE is insecure, turn off ActiveX" thing is so overdone. Not only do I still use IE but I still have ActiveX enabled. I have Adaware installed as well as MS AntiSpyware but I rarely run scans because I know the only thing that's going to come back are a few cookies. My browsing habits are such that I don't have to worry about Spyware...unless the reputable sites that I visit all of a sudden decide to become nefarious.

Don't get me wrong though, turning off ActiveX is a good security measure. I just don't feel it's something that I need to do because of my personal browsing habits and the applications I use.

Edited February 13, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[Mr Snrub]

Title is slightly out of context, the article states:

"...it seems that IE users who haven't patched their browser are 21 times more likely to have a spyware attack executed -- if not necessarily succeed -- against their machine."

I consider their test flawed in that they are purposely using unpatched versions of the browsers, and I wonder if they are also logged on with a user with admin rights... what was it meant to "prove"?

I would guess that the most significant proportion of malware infections comes from visiting warez, hacking/cracking and "free" porn sites.

[Aegis]

Lots of sites with greedy/poor owners using free/ad-supported hosting are also a source of spyware.