RyuKent on Life

After the German government issued a warning that there was an immediate threat to the use of Firefox 3.6 allowing poisoned sites to compromise users’ machines, Mozilla have issued an emergency update to correct the problem. This comes as yet another example of how bugs in the browser put users at risk. Increasingly viruses and malware are being spread not by downloading infected software, but simply by visiting websites.

The question then must become, should we switch browsers if we consider this a problem. Of course it’s a problem but with users hopping backwards and forwards, do they really gain more protection and is it likely to cause more confusion ultimately leading to lack of security? In the long run it will be the browsers that successfully issue patches quickly and can be relied upon. If you’re going to stick with one, you want the software that will be updated automatically and you won’t have to switch from. By issuing a quick fix, Mozilla are no doubt proving they are tackling the issues head on.

The update was originally planned for the end of the month but considering the danger and bad press generated by such an official organisation in Germany urging users not to use the software, the patch was rushed through.

To make sure you have the most recent version, within Firefox, click on ‘Help’, then ‘Check for updates’. As of today, you should be running 3.6.2. This can be checked by selecting ‘Help’, then ‘About’.