Sounds to me like this is a very large exploit (impacts IE version 6 through 11) that is currently active, being used in attacks. If you use Windows, the quickest fix is to switch to another browser, at least until a patch is made available.

The zero-day code-execution hole in IE versions 6 through 11 represents a significant threat to the Internet security because there is currently no fix for the underlying bug, which affects an estimated 26 percent of the total browser market. It’s also the first significant vulnerability to target Windows XP users since Microsoft withdrew support for that aging OS earlier this month. Users who have the option of using an alternate browser should avoid all use of IE for the time being. Those who remain dependent on the Microsoft browser should immediately install EMET, Microsoft’s freely available toolkit that greatly extends the security of Windows systems.

The vulnerability is formally indexed as CVE-2014-1776. Microsoft has blog posts here, here, and here that lay out bare bones details uncovered at this early stage in its investigation. Although there is no exploited vulnerability in Adobe Flash, disabling the browser add-on will also neutralize attacks, analysts at security firm FireEye Research Labs wrote in a separate blog post published Sunday. Disabling vector markup language support in IE also mitigates attacks.

From Microsoft’s security advisory:

Microsoft is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, and Internet Explorer 11.

The vulnerability is a remote code execution vulnerability. The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.

This is the cost of a widely splintered user base. To fix this, Microsoft has to patch all versions of IE. And what will this mean for Windows XP users? Microsoft has ended support for Windows XP. Will those users remain vulnerable unless they switch?

Microsoft is in a tough position here. Short term, I’d switch browsers or follow the instructions in this blog post, which might solve the problem for some.

Wired:

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (is) the cult-­stoking comedy series that provided awful films with hilarious, sharp, high-speed detractors’ commentary. MST3K is the story of a sarcastic Earth dweller—played initially by series creator Joel Hodgson and, in later years, by head writer Mike Nelson—who’s exiled to a ramshackle spaceship called the Satellite of Love, where he’s forced to watch an endless supply of crapola movies. Our hero’s response to such torture, naturally, is to unleash a torrent of withering one-­liners, or “riffs,” that he delivers with the help of a couple of robot pals.

I never actually saw the show but have heard many geeks and nerds refer to it lovingly.

This bike lock is pretty clever. Most of these U-shaped locks are notoriously easy to pick, often just using a simple Bic pen.

This lock offers no apparent keyway. And when you do find a place to put the key, all you get is a hollow cylinder. Watch the video to see how this works. The coolness starts at about the two minute mark.

If someone buys Jim lunch with Tim Cook, pick me up one of these locks, too!

In short: the FCC would allow network owners (your Verizons, Comcasts, etc.) to create Internet “fast lanes” for companies (Disney, The Atlantic) that pay them more. For Internet activists, this directly violated the principle of net neutrality, which has been a hot-button issue in Silicon Valley for a long time.

Net neutrality is the idea that any network traffic—movies, web pages, MP3s, pictures—can move from one place (our servers) to any other place (readers’ computers phones) without “discrimination.”

Definitely a hot-button topic.

You have to respect someone with this much talent.

This is just plain cool. No one would ever need to do this, but amazing to me that one machine can support such massive connectivity.

Just two weeks after being purchased by Amazon, digital comic book seller ComiXology has announced that it’ll be retiring its app in favor of a new read-only version that requires users to purchase comic books via their website, much like Amazon does with its Kindle app.

I saw many people call this the day Amazon bought them.

The Verge:

On July 20th, the five remaining members of famed comedy group Monty Python will reunite for one last show, and you won’t have to fly to the United Kingdom to watch. Due to popular demand, The Last Night of Monty Python will be streamed live to 1,500 theaters around the world.

The performance is expected to include some of the group’s famous sketches, although we’re not yet sure which ones. “I think you can expect a little comedy, a lot of pathos, some music and a tiny bit of ancient sex,” Eric Idle told the UK Press Association.

OMG I am so going to be in a theatre watching this on July 20th.

Appleinsider:

Virtually everyone who had offered an opinion about Apple’s iPhone mix got everything wrong.

In stark contrast, no drastic measures were recommended for fixing Moto X. Even the Wall Street Journal couldn’t bring itself to describe Google’s price slashing of the Moto X (from $550 to $399) as a desperate measure to move inventory.

Despite all the media pampering for Google, the reality in this case was that Motorola lost over $700 million for Google in just the last six months of Moto X sales.

As a follow along to the previous “iPad is doomed!” story comes this. I truly do not understand how the tech and mainstream media can see the same data points and come up with the exact opposite conclusions. That is, the iPhone 5c is a flop and the Moto X isn’t. Even if you are being intentionally biased for Google, the data doesn’t support you.

MG Siegler:

iPad sales did disappoint one group of folks immensely: Wall Street.

As a standalone business, just based on the last 12 months of revenue, the iPad would be in the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500. Think about that for a second. The iPad alone is bigger than almost all Fortune 500 companies.

If the iPad is a fad, it’s the greatest fad in the history of American business.

It’s easy to point to “fewer iPads sold” and Chicken Little the story to death – as respected columnist Gassee and Mossberg have done. But it would still be wrong.

Yesterday, we posted about Realmac Software’s experience with negative reviews on the App Store and their inability to reach out to the user directly to address the problem.

Reaching out to the customer directly would allow a developer to quickly aid a confused user, gain valuable insight into a problem and, perhaps, avoid more poor reviews. Ideally, a newly satisfied user would change their 1 star review to a 5 star review. But even without that last bit, the shortened feedback cycle would certainly lead to improved software.

That said, Microsoft is now rolling out the ability to respond to feedback directly from Dev Center.

This new capability enables developers to respond to reviews of Windows Phone apps directly from Dev Center. Once you create a response, users will receive the comment via email from Microsoft and can even contact you directly if you included your support email address in the app submission ‘Support email address’ metadata.

If you are an iOS developer, I’d encourage you to look at the linked article and leave a comment on this post. Is this the right approach? Would you be for this same approach on the App Store? Something different? [Via iOS Dev Weekly]

Think you know how to generate a secure password? Do you follow your own advice?

This is a thoughtful look at the process of guessing people’s passwords. Well written, an enjoyable read, and I learned a few things along the way.

This is heinous.

Men cruise around homeless shelters, the 16th Street Mall, and plasma donation clinics in an effort to find people desperate for money.

The men will drive victims to Apple stores and convince them to sign numerous contracts for numerous iPhones. Victims will then be paid $100 or more in exchange for several iPhones.

The iPhones can be unlocked and sold on the international market for more than $700 dollars each.

The victims sign up for these contracts, get some quick cash, end up on the hook for thousands of dollars or ruined credit.

9Wants to Know observed an Apple store employee collect Sauer’s information for several contracts.

The same Apple employee was seen giving Sauer’s new iPhones directly to the schemers.

If this is true, I assume that employee is about to spend some time in jail. Heinous. [Via 9to5Mac]

Follow the link to read Gundotra’s blog post about leaving.

Here’s what Larry Page posted in the comments:

Vic — thank you for a tremendous almost eight years at Google. You cut your teeth on our mobile apps and developer relations, turning our disparate efforts into something great. When I first used turn-by-turn navigation, it blew me away. And, walking onto the stage at I/O last year, it was amazing to see developers so excited about Google. These were vintage Vic projects. Then you built Google+ from nothing. There are few people with the courage and ability to start something like that and I am very grateful for all your hard work and passion. I really enjoy using Google+ on a daily basis, especially the auto awesome movies which I really love sharing with my family and friends. Good luck with your next project after Google. In the meantime we’ll continue working hard to build great new experiences for the ever increasing number of Google+ fans.

This is 2014. This doesn’t seem like a a problem that still needs solving, yet we still don’t have a de-facto platform for private and semi-private photography sharing and backup.

I use Apple’s built-in apps and tools.

Kevin Wild on the Secret app:

It fits into a new paradigm in today’s tech journalism, the act of reporting on one anonymous source. With the ease of sharing secrets, will Secret be the one anonymous source that new outlets use to break future stories?

I hope not.

Dan Counsell, the Founder of Realmac Software, brings up some good points in this article. I’ve never talked to a developer that didn’t want to help customers correct a problem. We all make mistakes and when customers are upset, it’s useful to be able to contact them directly.

There’s much to consume here. At its core are 100 short biographies of influential people. There’s much to discuss. How did they come up with this list? Where’s Tim Cook? And if he is on the list, I couldn’t find him, which speaks to the clunky interface. Carl Icahn is on the list, but not Tim Cook? Hmm.

Culling the mass of humanity into a single list of the 100 most influential people in the world is no easy task. I did agree with most of the choices. What I really loved about this project is the people who actually wrote the prose that went along with each person.

Among the 100 bio writers were Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, Chris Christie, Judd Apatow, Karl Rove, Michael Bloomberg, Stella McCartney, and Alice Park, just to name a few. The writers were as fascinating as the people they were profiling.

Not sure this is the untold story as much as it is a collection of anecdotes from a variety of sources, but I did find it interesting, if a bit scattered.

There’s coverage of Page, Brin, and Schmidt of course. But there are stories about Andy Rubin and Android, Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla (a big influence on Larry Page), Paul Buchheit and gmail, Marissa Meyer, and a lot more.

Definitely an enjoyable read.

Kirk McElhearn talks through the process of deleting iCloud documents from iOS and the Mac.

On the iOS side, he’s right on the money. But on the Mac side, Kirk says:

It’s surprising that you can’t do this from a Mac. But there are ways to access, and delete, files from OS X, such as by navigating to ~/Library/Mobile Documents, where you can see all your documents in a Finder window. If you delete documents there, they get deleted from iCloud in the same way, but the interface isn’t designed for you to do this.

This option is a bit tucked away, but if you go to System Preferences… and select iCloud, you’ll see a Manage… button. It’s pretty much the same interface.

I do like the mention of ~/Library/Mobile Documents, though I’d strongly suggest using the interface. Using the Finder to delete files when there is an interface designed specifically to delete them is asking for trouble.

I would also recommend logging in to iCloud.com and clicking the circled ? in the upper right corner. That will bring up an excellent help window with coverage on storage management and a host of other useful topics.

Reuters:

Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.

And:

The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other’s prized engineers.

In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt’s note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face.

Glad that’s over. I can’t imagine this would be anything but a giant distraction.

Stratechery:

The future of the iPad is not to be a better Mac. That may happen by accident, just as the Mac eventually superseded the Apple II, but to pursue that explicitly would be to sacrifice what the iPad might become, and, more importantly, what it already is.

Anyone “giving up” on the iPad really has no clue as to what Apple’s long term strategy is and has always been.

The thing is, attribution can also mean responsibility. Putting your name on something (or allowing that to happen) isn’t just an endorsement, but also an admission that the buck stops with you. If there’s a problem with this, it’s my fault.

Mod and I talked about how Hi was developed, how to build tools to encourage a regular writing routine, and where online publishing is heading next. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

Craig is a really smart fellow.

That’s one problem with anonymous sources: They often get it wrong because why make sure you have it right when you will not be held accountable for what you say.

I really enjoyed this article.

Sounds like a great gift for someone to give me.

Visitors to Chicago’s Renaissance Society in the winter of 1980 encountered a concise exhibition with a provocative thesis. “Objects and Logotypes: Relationships Between Minimalist Art and Corporate Design” was a polemical juxtaposition of two strands of postwar American culture that, at first blush, could hardly seem more opposed.

Great read.

[Via Khol Vinh]

Certainly a good starting place.