Some time ago, maybe nearly 10 years ago, I remember Microsoft being challenged about the security of their Internet Explorer and giving the response that their browser should only be used for trusted websites ... which is to say, "never use it on the Internet," -- I started back then advising people to ween themselves of that browser, and before you laugh, they have just said the same thing again today reported in My Way News:

The infection ... appears to take advantage of three separate flaws with Microsoft products and can be difficult to detect.

Stephen Toulouse, a security program manager at Microsoft, said software updates to fix two of them had been released in April, but the third flaw was newly discovered and had no patch available yet.

He recommended that computer owners obtain the latest security updates ...

Pardon my observation here, but didn't he just say in the previous paragraph no such security patch is available? Ok, I thought so -- so I wasn't just seeing things. Anyway, minor point because it gets way better ...

...users should also turn up security settings on Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers to the highest levels.

Users could also turn off the "JavaScript" feature on their Microsoft browsers, though doing so could cripple functions on some sites.

This reminds me of the old 'cure' for air-sickness that says, "Lay flat on your back, place a large stone on your belly ... and stay out of airplanes!"

Anyone who's ever used MSIE with the max security settings already knows it's not much fun, so basically this is a remasked restatement of "Only use it for trusted websites" and therein a very curious side question emerges: Who can you trust online?

According to the BBC, the news may be a little worse than the US media are willing to admit ...  read more »

How does this happen? According to the Ottawa Citizen, the largest defense contractor in the U.S has won the contract to store Canada's census data -- now I'll accept that perhaps there are safe-guards against handing our records over to the Total Information Awareness spooks (and they could just ask the RCMP anyway) but what bugs me is, was there not a single Canadian company up to the challenge?

"Canadians will be involved in the performance of the work because it's a Canadian subsidiary that will be doing it," said Mr. Rock. "The bidding process was carried on in accordance with Public Works (Department) rules and I assume the lowest bidder, for the best price, for the best quality, got the job."

Apparently notand therein the biggest disgrace. And this from a nation Rock claimed only days ago would be among the top-tier of the new innovators for the 21st century ...  read more »

The MetaFilter thread on RFID paints a pretty chilling scenario where the items you buy, because of the permanent and washable RFID tags, can become linked to your credit card at the point of sale and from there, your own clothes are tracking your every move! Sure, there are positive uses, you could walk out of the library freely, shop by just picking up stuff, but still, some pretty ubiquitous product suppliers have just bought a mountain of these RFID chips, and there isn't a shred of legislation to control what they do with them

Is RFID inherently Evil? Not a chip in your body, like EvilCorp Applied Digital Solutions proposes, but in your household products, your clothes, and your car. And it's here now ... sold by Benetton, Prada, British retailer Tesco, Proctor & Gamble, and Wal-Mart? Phillips Semiconductor alone has already sold half a Billion of these chips.  read more »