CERT [the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team] recommends that Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera. Mac, Linux and other non-Windows operating systems are immune from this attack. For people who continue to use the Internet Explorer, CERT and Microsoft recommend setting the browser's security settings to "high," but that can impair some browsing functions.

It has finally happened. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the installed default Web browser for Windows), along with Outlook Express and other Windows-based applications, has long been subject to security problems that have allowed a number of disaffected teenagers to wreak all sorts of Internet havoc. But now, according to this article in the Washington Post, more organized groups are exploiting a combination of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's server software (Internet Information Services (IIS)) and Internet Explorer not to be disruptive, but to undertake as yet vague criminal enterprises.

This is far more troubling because it's far more difficult to detect and combat than previous Windows viruses and other exploits. This is designed not to harm your computer, but to steal data and use your computer for illegal purposes. At this point, there are no security patches or upgrades that you can install to protect your computer, and anti-virus software is unlikely to detect the problem. Thus, the only way to avoid this problem is to stop using Internet Explorer. If, for some strange reason, you're still using Windows (I do at work, rather against my will), download Mozilla's Firefox, install it, and set it as your default browser. And if you're using Outlook Express, install their Thunderbird as your default mail application.

Both applications are effective drop-in replacements for their Microsoft counterparts, and when set as the default, they handle everything automatically, just as the Microsoft versions would. And in most ways, they're better applications than the Microsoft alternatives. Firefox is very fast, it blocks pop-up ads, and it allows for tabbed browsing. Thunderbird provides advanced Spam filtering and functions to import all of your mail, settings, and address book from Outlook Express.