At least they didn’t say “hackers”

Here’s a bit of a warning for all of you Internet Explorer users out there. CNET News has an article up right now called Researchers warn of infectious Web sites. In it, they discuss two flaws in Internet Explorer that could let someone take over your computer. The difference this time is that you can get infected just by browsing the web. Here’s the meat of the article:

…online organized crime groups are breaking into Web servers and surreptitiously inserting code that takes advantage of two flaws in Internet Explorer that Microsoft has not yet fixed. Those flaws allow the Web server to install a program that takes control of the user’s computer.

And in case you’re wondering why your computer is running so slow and you’re getting so many popups, this article addresses that, too:

Earlier this month, an independent security researcher found an aggressive advertising program, known as adware, that installed itself onto a victim’s computer via the same two flaws in Internet Explorer.

Nice. At this point you’re saying to yourself “It’s OK, I have antivirus software!”

The group also pointed out that the malicious program uploaded to a victim’s computer is not currently detected as a virus by most antivirus software.

Ouch. So what’s my advice? Simple, don’t use Internet Explorer. Go to http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ and install Firefox.

Firefox is the best web browser I’ve ever used. It’s a great way to avoid all of the flaws in Internet Explorer and at the same time introduce yourself to some open-source software.