Tuesday, January 19, 2010
There is urgency in Microsoft to issue an IE patch to fix Flaw
With all the recent news of Google threatening to pull out of China due to security attacks and censorship. Microsoft has responded. The cyber attacks happened due to a flow in IE which allows attackers a vulnerable are or a hole by which to gain entry into people's personal mail accounts. Microsoft has asked people to shift to IE 8.
George Stathakopoulos, general manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), stated "We continue to see limited and targeted attacks against Internet Explorer 6 and encourage customers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. We also recommend customers consider deploying the workarounds and mitigations provided in Security Advisory 979352 until the security update is ready for broad distribution."
Signaling high urgency, Microsoft will not wait until it's next Patch Tuesday -- Feb. 9 -- the next scheduled date for issuing security updates.
This is all part of the fast-developing security ramifications of Google threatening to pull out of China. Last Tuesday, Google said it may well leave China because of cyberattacks and censorship. On Thursday, McAfee disclosed that Google and some 30 other companies were targeted by a spear phishing campaign, dubbed Operation Aurora. The attackers tricked specific employees to click on a bad link, accessing a heretofore unknown security hole in IE6, an older version of Microsoft's popular Web browser, to take over control of the PC.
Update: Olso, Norway-based Opera is reporting that downloads of its rival Web browser have doubled in Germany and risen 35 percent in Australia. That comes after the governments of France, Germany and Australia issued warnings to stop using Internet Explorer in view of the revelations following Google's threat to leave China.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver a speech Thursday morning in Washington D.C. about "Internet freedom," at which she's expected to discuss the Google-China brouhaha.
Microsoft are putting all their mussel to issue the patch as early as possible. The German government had also asked their citizens to use other web browsers instead of Internet Explorer as it had vulnerabilities.
George Stathakopoulos, general manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), stated "We continue to see limited and targeted attacks against Internet Explorer 6 and encourage customers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. We also recommend customers consider deploying the workarounds and mitigations provided in Security Advisory 979352 until the security update is ready for broad distribution."
Signaling high urgency, Microsoft will not wait until it's next Patch Tuesday -- Feb. 9 -- the next scheduled date for issuing security updates.
This is all part of the fast-developing security ramifications of Google threatening to pull out of China. Last Tuesday, Google said it may well leave China because of cyberattacks and censorship. On Thursday, McAfee disclosed that Google and some 30 other companies were targeted by a spear phishing campaign, dubbed Operation Aurora. The attackers tricked specific employees to click on a bad link, accessing a heretofore unknown security hole in IE6, an older version of Microsoft's popular Web browser, to take over control of the PC.
Update: Olso, Norway-based Opera is reporting that downloads of its rival Web browser have doubled in Germany and risen 35 percent in Australia. That comes after the governments of France, Germany and Australia issued warnings to stop using Internet Explorer in view of the revelations following Google's threat to leave China.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver a speech Thursday morning in Washington D.C. about "Internet freedom," at which she's expected to discuss the Google-China brouhaha.
Microsoft are putting all their mussel to issue the patch as early as possible. The German government had also asked their citizens to use other web browsers instead of Internet Explorer as it had vulnerabilities.
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