Another attack warning for Internet Explorer

For anyone who is still using Internet Explorer, here is another reason for you to change.

I first heard about this problem on the BBC national (radio) news, which gives you an indication of the seriousness of the attack.

It seems there is hole within Internet Explorer which allows hackers to take control of an infected machine merely by tricking the user into visiting a website which contains malicious programming code within it’s pages.

Trend Micro Inc, the anti virus software maker, was the first company to become aware of the vulnerability and they estimate as many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since last week.

The infected websites are mostly Chinese and have been serving up programs that steal passwords for computer games. The fear is that this hole is such that it could be further expanded and adopted to cause more serious problems for anybody who falls foul of the exploit.

Microsoft is looking into the problem and may release a patch to fix it outside of its usual updates.

As the vast majority of people using the internet do so through Internet Explorer, the consequences could be very serious. This is not the first time IE has run into trouble and it is unlikely to be the last.

Experts are advising people not to use Internet Explorer and are recommending they try one of the alternatives. I have not used Internet Explorer for years and only leave it on my machine to allow for website testing. The next best option is Firefox, which is an open source browser and offers much more security and features than Internet Explorer.

The best alternatives:

Google Chrome
Opera
Safari