Another security flaw hits Internet Explorer
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A second security flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been discovered in as many weeks, and comes just days after NHS Trusts were urged to upgrade their PCs from the sixth to seventh version of the web browser.
The latest flaw was demonstrated at the Black Hat security conference, held this week in Washington DC, where it was reported the security hole affects Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8. Further details on the flaw are available on Microsoft's Technet website.
In a statement to technology site The Inquirer, Jerry Bryant, security communications manager at Microsoft said, "Customers running Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 in their default configuration on Windows Vista or later operating systems are not vulnerable to this issue as they benefit from Internet Explorer Protected Mode, which protects from this issue.'
'Windows XP users, or users who have disabled Protected Mode, can help protect themselves by implementing Network Protocol Lockdown. We have created a Microsoft Fix It to automate this. The Fix It can be run on individual systems or enterprises can deploy it through their automated systems."
The recommendation from the Department of Health to NHS Trusts to upgrade their versions of Internet Explorer comes weeks after the French and German governments urged public sector departments to switch to a different web browser.
IE8 is the latest version of Microsoft's browser, and was this week declared ‘the world's most popular web browser' by NetApplications.
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