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Firefox isn't as secure as you thought

wired.com — As the number of people opting not to use IE grows, makers of filtering software say users of leading alternate browsers can expect to see more intrusive ads and spyware applications headed their way.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 2, 2005

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  • mu-sly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That may be true to an extent, but the difference is that the alternative browsers will come up with fixes within days, not years.

    For starters, there's already the Adblock extension, which does a great job of removing all kinds of intrusive ads, and if that ultimately fails to work, there ain't no ads getting around a few 127.0.0.1 entries in your hosts file.

    The advertisers can never win, because they always have to play on our turf. Sure, plenty of lusers will continue to be harassed by intrusive ads, but they're the kind of people who wouldn't even know alternative browsers exist, let alone have considered switching to one.

    Savvy users have nothing to worry about, whereas advertisers should take a look at Google's text-only ads for an example of the only kind of ad that people are really prepared to put up with.

    They're just gonna have to get used to it, because if they come into my house, they play by my rules and don't annoy me, or they get permablocked.

    Even with those "floater" kind of ads, ultimately, if I can't get rid of them, I'll just won't bother ever going to that website again.

    Advertisers: you can't win, so just suck it up!!!
  • jamiejamez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can download an Excellent Hosts file here http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm and its updated pretty frequently.

    This site has a better explanation of what a HOSTS file is and how/why it works. http://accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html

    I've created my own, and I haven't seen a pop up, or even a banner ad on my computer for about 2 yrs.
    Just make sure you set it to 'READ ONLY' to prevent it from being Hijacked.
  • DogNo7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A lot of conjecture and very little to back it up other than, "experts at blah blah corp say...". Wired is not exactly the source I rush over to when I have a question about security issues.

    This is not to say that bugs don't exist in Firefox, but Wired trying to scare users about future problems with firefox that "could be" worse than existing problems with internet exploder is pattently illogical.

    They [wired] must be drinking water from Redmond.

    Or receiving advertising dollars. Same diff.
  • Smoktiludy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hosts file example:
    127.0.0.1 coolwwwsearch.com
    127.0.0.1 coolwebsearch.com
    127.0.0.1 hi.studioaperto.net
    127.0.0.1 www.webbrowser.tv
    127.0.0.1 www.wazzupnet.com
  • yellekc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I believe mu-sly is referring to host entries that cause your computer to skip checking a URL with an online DNS and instead connect to whatever address is in the host file, and if its 127.0.0.1 then it connects to your own computer, and unless you are an online ad-server you won't get the ad.
  • DarthGordolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0firefox just released an update...it will probably negate advertisers continuing efforts to take over the internet.
  • xalen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People please stop posting stories like this.

    They are stories written by companies who make anti-spyware programs! Of corse the want people to think that they are at risk, it sells their product!
  • AduneWarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't mind if there are gonna be a some more spyware and advertisements. I like fire fox because i can mod it to what I want adding extensions and editing it's programming. I'm sure some people will make extensions to sold this like Ad block and I'm sure they will add some sort of spy ware blocker too... well a more advanced one. But right now fire fox is great for me.
  • chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0mu-sly - can you explain the 127.0.0.1 entries? I consider myself a pretty savvy browser, but it's not something I've heard of.
  • jayred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0another great thing that acts similarly to Adblock is a free spyware prevention tool called SpywareBlaster. This tool immunizes your system before hand and works with IE and Mozilla/Firefox. Since installing it almost a year ago, I've never had any spyware get on my computer. Link below.

    http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

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