Pangloss Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Just curious if anyone else here has ever caught a virus or spyware on their computer using Mozilla or Firefox. I use Mozilla as often as I can, but sometimes I have to hit a site using IE because of formatting problems in Mozilla. But so far I don't think I've ever caught spyware on my system using Mozilla, and it's been ages since I've had anything at all. Meanwhile everyone I know who's using IE is getting hit left and right, unless they're using anti-spyware, ad blockers, MyIE2, etc.
P_Rog Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I use IE and I run ad-aware about once a week and it always turns up about 10-20 spywares. I have norton anti virus and firewall, so what's the worse that spyware can do to my computer, saying that my firewall blocks out most of the big time things.
apollo2011 Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I have recently switeched to Mozilla Firefox, I regularly scan with adaware and spybot and have a normal occurence of stuff on my machine. However, since I switched, I haven't done a scan... so the answer would probably no.
Pangloss Posted October 1, 2004 Author Posted October 1, 2004 I use IE and I run ad-aware about once a week and it always turns up about 10-20 spywares. I have norton anti virus and firewall, so what's the worse that spyware can do to my computer, saying that my firewall blocks out most of the big time things. *Incredible*. And this is what I typically hear, too. For a savvy user, like I assume pretty much everyone reading this, it's no big deal. But sometimes it can lead to a serious virus problem if you're not vigilent. Where it's really a problem is for the vast majority of computer users, who really don't know what they're getting into. It's gotten to the point where if you do nothing you're *guaranteed* to get spyware/viruses.
Douglas Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Just curious if anyone else here has ever caught a virus or spyware on their computer using Mozilla or Firefox. I use Mozilla as often as I can' date=' but sometimes I have to hit a site using IE because of formatting problems in Mozilla. But so far I don't think I've ever caught spyware on my system using Mozilla, and it's been ages since I've had anything at all. Meanwhile everyone I know who's using IE is getting hit left and right, unless they're using anti-spyware, ad blockers, MyIE2, etc.[/quote'] Pangloss, I'm using windows XP pro, along with IE. I was getting "pop-ups" every 5 minutes. I disabled my windows messenger service and the pop-ups disappeared. For extra protection, I activated my firewall.
drz Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 before I got a good grip on the spyware issue, my pc was riddled with them. It was so bad, I could not use IE, at all. I had my brother download netscape for me, and I installed it with the spyware already infecting my machine. I continued to use it infected for about 2 weeks before I finally found good programs, and never once did I have any trouble out of the crappy lil programs. I for one believe all this spyware to be a conspiracy. McCaffe and Norton aren't making enough money off virus scanners, lets invent a new problem to make software for. I find it funny that only microsoft OSs are effected, and also it indeed seems only IE. I didn't put that together until I noticed this topic.
Phi for All Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 I use Firefox for everything except work. I have 2 sites for work where I need IE. Monday-Friday I pick up about 8-12 data miners on average, and both sites are secure, so I get these in the time between when my home page pops up and I get to the sites. Sat-Sun when I'm funning only Firefox I get bupkis.
Skye Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 There was a news item recently and I think IE still had around 95% of the browser market share. So there's not alot of sense in attacking the other browsers.
Pangloss Posted October 2, 2004 Author Posted October 2, 2004 Yah I think that's definitely part of it. On the other hand, Mozilla could be said to be less vulnerable because IE is so tightly integrated with the OS.
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