English for IT students. 2 курс. Учебное пособие по английскому языку

explained: If a hacker took advantage of this security problem, you could see an icon or a graphic in a Web page, which is, in fact, within a regular Window 95 folder of the Web site server or your computer. The hacker could shrink the frame around the icon or graphic so that you would think it was harmless, when in fact it allows you or anyone else to open, copy, or delete the file, or run a program that could, if the author has malicious intent, damage your computer. You can launch the program because the folder bypasses the Internet Explorer security mechanism.

Several sources determined that one could launch programs on the client‘s machine by pointing to either a URL or an LNK file.

Folks at A.L. Digital, a London-based firm, determined that Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer contained a bug that would allow a malicious Java applet to steal, corrupt, or otherwise alter files on the client‘s machine.

Dirk Balfanz and Edward Felten of Princeton

University wrote in August 1996: ―We have discovered a security flaw in Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer browser running under Windows 95. An attacker could exploit the flaw to run any DOS command on the machine of an Explorer user who visits the attacker‘s page. For example, the attacker could read, modify, or delete the victim‘s files, or insert a virus or backdoor entrance into the victim‘s machine‖.

The risk represented here is tremendous.

It is clear that, for the moment, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still cutting its teeth in terms of Internet security. What makes the problem especially serious that only those users who are truly security aware receive such information as breaking news. The majority receive such information from third parties, long after holes have been discovered. This is of major concern because nearly all of the holes found in Internet Explorer have been Class A.

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