Wired 13.02: The Firefox Explosion

Wired 13.02: The Firefox Explosion
"The Firefox Explosion
It's fast, secure, open source - and super popular.
The hot new browser called Firefox is rocking the software world. (Watch your back, Bill Gates.)
By Josh McHughPage 1 of 3

For Rob Davis, the final straw came during a beautiful weekend last summer, which he spent holed up in his Minneapolis apartment killing a zombie.

The week before, a malicious software program had invaded Davis' PC through his browser, Internet Explorer, using a technique called the DSO exploit.

His computer had been repurposed as a 'zombie box' - its CPU and bandwidth co-opted to pump reams of spam onto the Internet.

Furious, Davis dropped out of a planned Lake Superior camping trip to instead back up his computer and reformat his crippled hard drive. Then he vowed never to open IE again."