|
Explorer bug discovered
|
 |
March 4, 1997: 9:57 p.m. ET
Flaw is serious and could cause damage to home and office systems
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- Microsoft programmers are working feverishly to fix a dangerous bug in the latest version of the company's Internet Explorer 3.0 Web browser.
The bug allows Web site operators to wipe out all your files, discover your password, even grab money from your account if you do PC banking.
The bug was discovered by three undergrads at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Paul Greene, Brian Morin and Geoffrey Elliott. They e-mailed Microsoft about the problem last week.
"I realized immediately this was not supposed to happen," said Paul Greene.
"We're loyal users. We sent word out Thursday and didn't hear anything," said Brian Morin.
Geoffrey Elliott said "We tried to e-mail Bill Gates, but he didn't respond."
The software bug didn't splat onto Microsoft's radar screen until the boys from Worcester e-mailed some trade journals.
Computer security experts say the problem is very serious, but Microsoft's says it hopes to put a fix on it's Web site sometime Tuesday night.
"For the attack to occur it has to go through Internet Explorer and I'm fairly confident they can modify Internet Explorer to disallow these things from occuring," said Michael Zboray, network security analyst for the Gartner Group.
Corporations can protect themselves from the bug by downloading the anti-bug software, but that will probably be too tough for many home users.
The options are to use an earlier version without the bug, switch to Netscape's browser, or wait for Microsoft to issue the whole browser with the fix built in.
If you want to know more you can go to Microsoft's site, or you can go to Cybersnot.com, the site set up by the students who found the flaw.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
