Protect your Assets! Beware of the Internet Explorer.

I came into work today and was astonished to hear “DO NOT use Microsoft Internet Browser”.  This is what I use daily and to find out that Microsoft Corp itself is taking steps of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer Software that has exposed millions of users to the vulnerability of having their computers taken over by hackers.  Being a business owner, of course, this is something I take quite seriously.

This vulnerability, which came to light last week, is called “zero day”, after the 2003 film.  It has allowed criminals to take over a computer machine simply by steering the user to infected Web sites.  Users do not have to download anything for your computer to get infected, which makes this flaw in the Internet Explorer’s Programming code even more dangerous.  Internet Explorer is the world’s most popular used web browser.

How do you avoid this?  It has been suggested you use Firefox or Opera Web browsers.  Microsoft has made announcements that it plans to ship a security update rated “critical” for the browser today.  People using the Windows Update feature will automatically get the patch activated on their computer.

This is very critical to businesses around the world in that we have become such a computer dependent society. Thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit this flaw.  These hackers have loaded a malicious code on the sites that automatically infect visitors’ machines if they are using Internet Explorer.

Microsoft claims that most of the attacks have targeted the flaw in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but cautions that all other current editions of the browser are also vulnerable.

Microsoft is a strong company and has rarely issued security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly updates.  The last time Microsoft issued any kind of security issue was in October 2007. 

Microsoft has issued updates available for immediate download.