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[Snakebite]

Firefox was majorly hit by hackers yet again which is the third major incident since it's release. Greasemonkey which is an addon for Firefox that provides similar capabilities as Active X does for Internet Explorer was found to have a major security flaw. Malicious websites were able to access and read files on peoples home pc's. See Press Report below.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...pcworld/121918

Firefox was touted to be the better alternative to Internet Explorer as it was deemed to be more secure. However recent attacks including the theft of user information stored on the Spread Firefox marketing site, and a Firefox update that broke many third-party extensions have just shown that it is as vunerable as Internet Explorer.

So what should you use Internet Explorer or Firefox?

[...mole...]

firefox is still faster and less prone to spyware + has tabbed browsing so ill stick to that

[Snakebite]

Originally Posted by ...mole...

firefox is still faster and less prone to spyware + has tabbed browsing so ill stick to that

I havent found it to be faster in effect quite the opposite. Everytime I start Firefox it takes more than a minute to open up. Internet Explorer takes less than 30 seconds.

The only reason I've found that it is less prone to spyware is that most hackers attack Internet Explorer but recent major attacks show that hackers are now turning on Firefox, so pretty soon it will just be as bad.

[tranzmute]

yeah but thats why you have firewall.

Originally Posted by Snakebite

I havent found it to be faster in effect quite the opposite. Everytime I start Firefox it takes more than a minute to open up. Internet Explorer takes less than 30 seconds.

The only reason I've found that it is less prone to spyware is that most hackers attack Internet Explorer but recent major attacks show that hackers are now turning on Firefox, so pretty soon it will just be as bad.

A minute, even 30 seconds is too long for IE. You need to sort out your machine as there is something wrong with it.

Firewall wouldn't help you've already given Firefox/IE access to the web. Also if its a software firewall most people authorise internet access for any application which requests it.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Snakebite

Firefox was touted to be the better alternative to Internet Explorer as it was deemed to be more secure. However recent attacks including the theft of user information stored on the Spread Firefox marketing site, and a Firefox update that broke many third-party extensions have just shown that it is as vunerable as Internet Explorer.

Sure, Firefox has had its own security issues and bugs but the developers have done a good job of patching them up quick (v1.0.6 was released only just the other day fixing the third-party extension issue). The Greasemonkey plug-in is a third party developed, optional plug-in for Firefox - it has the serious security vulnerability. Not Firefox itself.

To say Firefox is as vulnerable as Internet Explorer is a complete lie. Internet Explorer will always be fundamentally more insecure as Firefox for a whole heap of reasons (ActiveX support for a start) not to mention the fact that Microsoft actually refuses to fix some of the more serous bugs with Internet Explorer that currently exist.

Whenever I re-install Windows or install Windows on a new machine one of the first things I do is uninstall Internet Explorer from Add/Remove programs and install Firefox. Internet Explorer just isn't worth the hassle.

The fact that Microsoft are introducing tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer v7.0 and have just introduced pop-up blocking just goes to show how far Firefox is ahead of the game.

[Snakebite]

Originally Posted by onlynik

A minute, even 30 seconds is too long for IE. You need to sort out your machine as there is something wrong with it.

It's only a AMD duron 700 it's ancient, been saving for a new one so cant be arsed doing much with this pc

Originally Posted by Snakebite

It's only a AMD duron 700 it's ancient, been saving for a new one so cant be arsed doing much with this pc

Still sounds like there is something slowing things down. AMD's are good.

[Snakebite]

Originally Posted by Neil

Sure, Firefox has had its own security issues and bugs but the developers have done a good job of patching them up quick (v1.0.6 was released only just the other day fixing the third-party extension issue). The Greasemonkey plug-in is a third party developed, optional plug-in for Firefox - it has the serious security vulnerability. Not Firefox itself.

To say Firefox is as vulnerable as Internet Explorer is a complete lie. Internet Explorer will always be fundamentally more insecure as Firefox for a whole heap of reasons (ActiveX support for a start) not to mention the fact that Microsoft actually refuses to fix some of the more serous bugs with Internet Explorer that currently exist.

Whenever I re-install Windows or install Windows on a new machine one of the first things I do is uninstall Internet Explorer from Add/Remove programs and install Firefox. Internet Explorer just isn't worth the hassle.

The fact that Microsoft are introducing tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer v7.0 and have just introduced pop-up blocking just goes to show how far Firefox is ahead of the game.

Grease monkey is firefox's equivalent to ActiveX since firefox doesnt have the capability itself for running powerful scripts to enhance websites.

You just have to be aware that as more and more people use firefox, hackers will attack it more therefore there will be more things to fix more often so it will slow down the patching process eventually.

Do mozilla have the resources to counteract this expected flood of attacks which will happen since hackers wont just not attack you because you happen to use firefox?