For IE users…
Spaceman-Spiff January 30th, 2004
[ Listening to: The Seatbelts - Ask DNA ]
[ Reading: Plum Island ]
Microsoft’s Upgrade Recommendation
i find this really funny
if you’re using non-IE browsers, you’ll get this message instead:
If you’re not running Internet Explorer this page (intentionally) won’t redirect, because without the bug it exploits it’s not really funny..So what was the point of this page? Well, there’s a bug in IE where you can hide most of the URL. Within a week of it being discovered, fraudsters were using this bug to set up ‘phishing’ scams. They send bulk email saying you need to update your banking details, with a link that ‘appears’ to be a form on a major bank’s website. And out of thousands of recipients, a few are tricked into giving out usable account and credit card details.Microsoft have known about this bug for more than a month and still don’t have a patch. Their website suggests typing in URL’s manually and not clicking on anything in an email, which is all good advice but people have come to trust that what they see in the address bar is actually the site they’re at, and are not necessarily going to know about Microsoft’s helpful advice. And why shouldn’t they trust it; the phrase “Trustworthy Computing” was Microsoft’s baby afterall!
if you’re not aware of this security bug in IE, pls read CERN’s Vulnerability Note VU#652278: Microsoft Internet Explorer does not properly display URLs
