Quote - Yes i did recieve an email from Daz with a link but it was one letting me know someone had replied to a posting on their forum. when i clicked on the link IE opened then my AV started scanning my system.

 

IE uses Active X. That can allow things on the net to access your hard drive - run, modify, or even delte files on your harddrive. Such programs can be trigged by something as 'innocent seeming' as characters in a URL telling a server to 'run application X' which then runs out to your hard drive and goes to town. Active X does let you do a few 'neat things', like check out all of a user's stored credit cards and passwords and mail them off to you ( :) ) [what they called -push technology- back when they kicked it off in 96 or 97 or so, but it is not generally a wise thing to let loose... All you would need is for IE to tell your computer to run 'windows IM' and use that to connect to 'point X' where a copy of this thing is waiting to be downloaded and installed on your system... This is one in a long list of reasons to not use IE. Likewise you should have a firewall on your system other than Windoes firewall, as Windows lets 'friends of Bill Gates' through your firewall... (well, not literally proven, but I wouldn't trust it - there is a lot of money to be made by 'co called legit business' in being able to get into your machine without your permission, and they can point to licenses you 'agreed to' in buying software to legally shield them - a hacker could explout the same set of 'backdoors'. Further... disable all those instant message apps... Or just accept getting a virus now and then.

Truth has no value without backing by unfounded belief.
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