http://www.kumite.com/myths
Educate new employees about virus hoaxes the easy way
OVERBLOWN: "the Internet Explorer bug threats"
Computer publications ran stories last year about the threats posed by Java,
a relatively new "darling" computer language for the Internet. But the Java threat remained theoretical
as time dragged on, and no Java viruses exist to this day. Reporters shifted their focus to Microsoft's ActiveX
technology when a group of publicity-seeking hackers seduced a TV reporter with an obscure ActiveX gimmick.
Stories about the hackers quickly faded when the gimmick came to light -- but it generated other stories speculating
on the "overall security concerns" surrounding ActiveX. Only Internet Explorer currently uses it, so
these stories naturally focused on Microsoft's software.
Critical mass
News reports reached critical mass after three college students discovered an obscure bug (unrelated to ActiveX) in
Microsoft's browser. All the major news organizations released sensational stories in late February & early
March about the bug. Panicky users either rushed to obtain software patches or immediately switched to Netscape
Navigator (which ironically suffers from similar bugs).
Each of the Internet Explorer bugs qualifies as an extremely obscure threat. No valid reports exist
of an exploit using any of the bugs discovered in Internet Explorer (or Netscape Navigator). And as you
might guess, Microsoft quickly released an
all-in-one patch to fix the bugs.
For further reading
Sun pays for ActiveX attack
Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy desperately wanted to show that Microsoft's ActiveX is inferior to Java. So he
paid an expert (Fred McLain) to maliciously exploit well-known ActiveX security flaws. Just one more twist
in the growing field of "malicious beta testing." (A 1997 report by Alex Lash)
Netscape: unsafe at any modem speed?
A Netscape spokesman kicked Microsoft in the teeth while touting the safety of his company's software -- but one
week later, Netscape tried to cover up the existence of another "serious" security flaw. Anyone on
the Internet can read your email if you use Netscape Navigator -- even your deleted email. If you think
that's bad, you should hear how Netscape covered up the existence of the "HTML page o' death" bug last
year... (A 1997 opinion piece by Rob Rosenberger)
