For anyone who hasn't seen this, apparently IE has a major security vulnerability that makes your passwords easy to steal.  Looks legitimate and not a hoax...

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/111811;_ylt=ApMBhBPpk3wqYLJGuzOz3ygazJV4

Are there people who still use IE?! Firefox rulz. hhh

I do use IE and not intend to go back to FF.

I mostly use FF, but sometimes there will be sites (often istock) that aren't working right in FF so I switch to IE. 

Won't be doing that now, though.  There are already (unrelated to this IE issue) plenty of cautionary tales from people who have had their microstock accounts hacked and royalties stolen. 

Fran, did you read the article I linked?

FWIW I have been fairly internet savvy for over 10 years and already use all the precautions you have mentioned plus a number of additional, and I don't believe or pass along any of the myriad hoaxes and warnings floating all over the net. 

If you are not concerned, feel free to blow this off, but it seemed serious and credible enough to me after reading the article that it was worth mentioning. 

Thanks for the more detailed explanation Fran. 

Unfortunately I do not have UAC enabled.  It is a monstrous PITA.

On the browsers, I have both Spy Sweeper and Regvac do daily sweeps of the computer and I always notice many more bugs detected after I have been surfing with IE vs. the amount present after using FF. 

Obviously as a programmer you know a lot more about this than I do, but I agree with you that good security practices are essential whatever system or browser you have.  Out of curiosity, do you work (directly or indirectly) for Microsoft? 

What is UAC? 

IE is not less secure than FF

While I agree with most of the statements that you made, I have to disagree with this one.

IE is less secure by the fact that it is the most prevalent browser.  More people use it and this makes more people interested in hacking it.

Hackers are not that interested in less known browsers, since they will not give them the "bang for the buck" that they are looking for.

While I agree with most of the statements that you made, I have to disagree with this one.

IE is less secure by the fact that it is the most prevalent browser.  More people use it and this makes more people interested in hacking it.

Hackers are not that interested in less known browsers, since they will not give them the "bang for the buck" that they are looking for.

This is opening a can of worms. I'd agree with you if you say that IE is the most attacked browser cause it's the most popular at the moment, but this doesnt automatically translate in being less secure. A decent objective measure of "security" is the number of security holes found, or even, better, the number currently unresolved. In this metric FF is slightly "less secure" than IE cause there are more vulnerabilities currently opened. You could say that IE, though more attacked, has less vulnerabilities.
I tend to prefer IE under Vista cause it works in conjuction with Vista Protected mode and UAC to keep malicious software away from my system. But it doesn't really matter cause FF is a perfectly capable and good browser to work with. The biggest hole in security is by far between the PC and the chair. If the user says yes when asked to install a program with Administrator rights, there is no browser and no security measure that will help him.

It seems that MS has issued an emergency patch for this vulnerability:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-078.mspx

Basically, if you run Windows Update, you should receive "Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714)", which patches this issue.

Thanks for the link.  Off to update windows...

I've been following the IE problem since it was announced.  My computer has updated but I still have concerns.  Both my computers have gone a bit wierd. 

I'm only a little savvy about computers ... enough to really screw something up.  Is there any such thing as "half smart?"   

Warren