Nick: All firewalls, even the most basics, does everything you said except blocking Flash.
I myself use IE, but disabled Flash and Java. This mean that there is sometimes things in pages that I can't see, but then I know that the site I am visiting is not worth my time anyways. Any respectable site will see that all the visitors, would it be from any browser or any way possible, are able to visit the site and at least have access to the main content.
It's true, I don't think we have much pirates around here in Québec. But it is probably way more due to the fact that consumers regroup themselves here and law is on our side. Providers are entitled to supply informations on hackers so they can be arrested etc, everything adding up so newbie hackers are usually found on the spot before they become annoying, and real hackers don't just hack anybody just for the kick of it.
|