Secure Browsing

2007-10-20

I came across a link today, with no context provided as to where it might link to. The real URL was hidden with tinyurl.com's help. Fearing that I might screw up my computer, but really wanting to know where the link goes, I took some precautions.

• I could use IE in Windows, but that would be stupid and would get me a score of 0 in security.
• I could use Firefox in Windows, which is better, but with the recent Firefox protocol bugs it could still screw over my computer. I suppose it would only damage my Windows partition, although of course it could also go and reformat my disk, in which case I'm screw. Score: 1 (which is still infinitely better than IE on Windows)
• I could use Firefox in Linux, but then the virus would still have access to my personal files. It wouldn't damage anything else though. Score: 2

My final solution was...

Use Firefox on Linux on a different partition than my main distro (running Xubuntu), with my Arch and Windows partitions unmounted, and using Epiphany to check my email at the same time just in case the site's a cookie stealer.

Score: Priceless.