After governments in both Germany and France advised citizens to change their browser from Internet Explorer (IE) to an alternative browser due to a highlighted fault, Microsoft said that the error will be patched ahead of schedule. Normally updating software on a particular day each month, the company said that it was moving quickly after hackers used it in China to attack Google email accounts.
Whilst Microsoft said that to the average user, the threat was weak because there were “very few” problematic sites remaining on the web, security experts said that malicious code could turn personal computers in zombie’s using a “trojan horse”. These affected machines could then provide secure and personal data to thieves in addition to being used, without the owner’s knowledge, to conduct crimes.
As Sophos, the internet security firm reported that a number of websites had been seen attempting to hack the fault, it was reported that Firefox had gained considerably in its market share. StatCounter, the web analytics company, said that Firefox had closed the gap on its rival and now had a 40per cent share against Microsoft’s 45per cent.
Responding to the news, George Stathakopoulos, general manger of Microsoft’s trustworthy computing security group said “Given the significant level of attention this issue has generated, confusion about what customers can do to protect themselves and the escalating threat environment Microsoft will release a security update out-of-band for this vulnerability.”
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