Changing your browser is only a short term and temporary fix to PC vulnerability

(07/01/2009)

Malicious software is growing increasingly sophisticated and there are many different ways to attack your PC. Many computer users around the world recently switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox after learning that a vulnerability in IE left their computers exposed to malicious attack called IE XML Heap Corruption Vulnerability.

"These kinds of vulnerabilities occur in most software," said Melih Abdulhayoglu, Chief Security Architect of Comodo, a leading Internet trust and security company.

"Internet Explorer is the most popular browser in the world. Of course hackers are going to try to exploit it. The question is, why are people expecting their browsers to protect them from attacks? That’s not the browser’s job. It’s not a security solution."

"The solution is not to move from one browser to another. That is a short term and temporary fix. There will be other attacks on other browsers. You don’t need another browser. You need a solution."

"The IE XML Heap Corruption vulnerability was a kind of malware called a buffer overflow. For the last year and a half Comodo has protected millions of users around the world from those attacks by distributing the Comodo Memory Firewall™ for free."

"Browsers are getting more complex. More complexity means that more things can go wrong, which makes them harder to test for vulnerabilities. As we build more and more complex software it becomes more challenging to check for flaws. The more code added, the more moving parts the software has, and the more complex it becomes. Testing for all permutations of all scenarios becomes very difficult."

"People should expect attacks from unscrupulous hackers," Abdulhayoglu said. “Computer users should use their browsers to browse, and they should install Internet security software, like Comodo Internet Security, to protect their computers."

"PC security must focus on prevention, not on detecting problems already manifest. It’s much better to stop malware at the door rather than waiting until it’s on your computer. Comodo Internet Security is a prevention-based software suite and protects PCs regardless of which browser is used.

" 25-year-old detection-based technologies, such as antiviruses, are totally inadequate today. Prevention is the key. With the acknowledged gaps in Internet Explorer, computer users are seeing a real-life example of the failure of detection-based antivirus technologies and the value of prevention-based technologies."

Related topics:  Application and software security   Computer and PC Security   Encryption   Internet and Web security   Security threats and vulnerabilities 

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