IE flaw interview with Jeremy Howard on ABC Breakfast News
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:06.440 | You're watching ABC News Breakfast.
00:00:08.240 | Microsoft users are being warned they might need to switch from the world's most popular web browser Internet Explorer to another system.
00:00:16.320 | Experts are warning there's a serious security flaw that may allow hackers to access personal information.
00:00:23.040 | So to explain just what this means for you and your PC, we're joined in the studio now by IT expert Jeremy Howard.
00:00:29.040 | Jeremy, good morning.
00:00:30.040 | Good morning.
00:00:30.520 | Now, this isn't entirely a new allegation or fear, is it? What sparked it today?
00:00:35.560 | Well, look, to be honest, for years security experts have been warning everybody to stop using Internet Explorer and start using something else.
00:00:42.880 | Firefox being the one usually suggested.
00:00:45.280 | This is because Internet Explorer has years of critical problems, which is putting people's data at risk.
00:00:50.920 | Their internet banking passwords, for instance.
00:00:54.000 | The big problem today is that there is a very widely used exploit that you can't avoid if you use Internet Explorer.
00:01:02.440 | It's hitting people hard.
00:01:04.200 | Already many, many people, hundreds of thousands of people on the internet have been affected.
00:01:08.720 | So how serious a threat is this?
00:01:11.000 | If you're logging onto your computer this morning at home to check your bank account, there's no way you should be using Internet Explorer?
00:01:18.960 | That's right.
00:01:19.520 | And normally I like to come on and talk about solutions and things people can do.
00:01:23.880 | But today I can't.
00:01:25.920 | It's very difficult because for me to say go and get Firefox, the first thing you might say is, oh, I haven't got it.
00:01:31.720 | I'll go and download it.
00:01:33.440 | There's a problem already.
00:01:34.760 | Because you've used your Explorer to download it.
00:01:37.880 | OK, I'll just update Windows.
00:01:39.600 | Well, A, there is no update currently which fixes this problem.
00:01:43.400 | Microsoft have known about it for a few weeks and still haven't fixed it.
00:01:47.200 | And furthermore, even to download the fix, you would have to use Internet Explorer.
00:01:50.880 | What does it actually do?
00:01:52.280 | What's the problem?
00:01:53.120 | Well, the problem is it's a generic problem called an exploit, which means that anybody can get into your computer and do whatever they want.
00:02:00.840 | Now, currently, most of the exploits of this particular problem, it's not a big deal.
00:02:06.480 | They're stealing computer game passwords.
00:02:08.880 | But the problem is once that person's code is in your computer, they can go back later or they can often what happens is they'll sell what's called a botnet of infected computers to the criminal underground for lots of money.
00:02:21.680 | And then they go in and steal all of the banking passwords or use it to attack other computers or so forth.
00:02:28.000 | So are you aware of any incidences in Australia using this system where people's personal information has been stolen?
00:02:38.160 | We can't know yet exactly what the hackers have done with the information.
00:02:42.640 | I do know that there are plenty of people in Australia that visit some of the tens of thousands of infected websites.
00:02:48.960 | It's as simple as going to a website which somebody else has already hacked into that can cause this problem.
00:02:54.400 | So we don't know what's being done with these exploits yet.
00:02:58.720 | But the problem is once you've been infected, even a patch can't fix it.
00:03:03.600 | You have to scrub your whole computer and start again.
00:03:06.560 | There's no known way to fix an infected computer.
00:03:09.200 | Now, not wanting to promote one brand over the other this morning here on the ABC, there's been a long been a discussion about whether Macs are now going to overtake the PC in terms of popularity and also security because they're less prone to viruses.
00:03:22.400 | Is this one more death blow for Microsoft for those operating systems?
00:03:26.400 | Look, in this case, it's about the web browser Internet Explorer.
00:03:30.960 | If you don't use that and there are others like Firefox and Opera and Google's got a new one called Chrome, which are all they're more secure, they're faster and they've got more features.
00:03:41.920 | So for years, Internet experts have been saying use one of these browsers instead.
00:03:47.280 | Eight out of 10 people still use Internet Explorer.
00:03:50.000 | Zero out of 10 security researchers use Internet Explorer.
00:03:53.360 | Using a Mac is another good way to avoid this problem.
00:03:56.400 | But of course, you might have all kinds of reasons like sharing office documents at work, which might need you to use a PC.
00:04:02.640 | Jeremy, thanks for the advice that you could give us this morning.
00:04:05.320 | Thank you.
00:04:06.640 | Serious warning this morning.