A few weeks ago, it was widely reported that all versions of the Internet Explorer Web browser from Microsoft from version 6 to version 11 (the current version) were vulnerable to a new and serious zero-day exploit. The exploit would allow an attacker to gain control of a computer and have the same rights as the currently logged-in user.
Microsoft has released a security patch to protect against this vulnerability. Users should not browse the Web using Internet Explorer until they have downloaded and installed this patch. Fortunately, doing so is as easy as running Windows Update. This even applies to otherwise unsupported Windows XP computers. If you have Windows Update enabled and set to automatically download and install updates, your copy of IE may already be patched. If you are unsure, manually run Windows Update on your computers, including any remaining Windows XP computers.
And, speaking of Windows XP, recall that I previously wrote about the potential security issues of continuing to use this now 13-year-old operating system. Microsoft recently had its first “Patch Tuesday” since support for XP ended. Ironically, by issuing patches for newer operating systems, Microsoft is flagging the continued vulnerabilities in XP for hackers. For more information about this security issue, read this article. This disturbing trend makes it even more important that users update to Windows 7 or 8.1 as soon as possible.