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The Internet Explorer brand is dead as we know it.

Microsoft says a security gap in Internet Explorer could allow an attacker to take complete control of a computer if the user clicks on a link to a malicious website. The vulnerability affects versions 6 through 11 of the Web browser. …

Microsoft Corp. released an emergency software fix for Internet Explorer on Tuesday after hackers exploited a security flaw in the popular Web browser to attack an unknown number of users. The software maker said on its website it released the software, known as a “Fix It,” as an emergency measure to protect customers after learning about “extremely limited, targeted attacks” that made use of the newly discovered bug. Microsoft said the attacks took advantage of an undiscovered flaw, or “zero day” vulnerability in industry parlance. …

IDG News Service - Microsoft will release a patch on Monday for older versions of its Internet Explorer browser, deviating from its normal repair schedule due to the seriousness of the problem. The vulnerability, which is present in IE 6, 7 and 8, is a memory corruption issue. It can be exploited by an attacker via a drive-by download, a term for loading a website with attack code that delivers malware to a victim's computer if the person merely visits the website. ... The patch, which will be released at 10 AM PST, will be distributed through Windows Update. Childs...

Brian Krebs on Computer Security Internet Explorer Unsafe for 284 Days in 2006 Security Fix spent the past several weeks compiling statistics on how long it took some of the major software vendors to issue patches for security flaws in their products. Since Windows is the most-used operating system in the world, it makes sense to lead off with data on Microsoft's security updates in 2006. Click the graphic for data on 2006 IE patches. First, a note on the methodology behind this blog post: The data presented here builds on a project I began in late 2005 looking...

Exploits against the unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer are increasing and attackers are gathering momentum, researchers said Thursday. They warned that the problem would become worse if cyber criminals attack via e-mail next. "It might come to nothing, but it feels like a storm's coming," said Roger Thompson, the chief technology officer at Exploit Prevention Labs. "The potential is there. Call it a storm watch, not a storm warning." At least two different exploits have appeared this week, said Thompson, one linked to the Russian-made hacker exploit kit called WebAttacker, the other posted early Thursday on the xSec gray-hat...

I need help. Windows XP SP2 on my computer will not start. Earlier this morning, everything was going great, then Firefox locked up while doing a Google search. Locked up tight, and I had to press and hold the power button for several seconds to shut down. Now, when I power up, everything goes well through POST until Windows tries to start up, then the screen goes black and all disk activity ceases. After waiting several minutes with nothing happening, pressing the power button for a fraction of a second shuts the computer down. I've tried booting to Last Known...

Google was so concerned that a flaw in Microsoft's IE browser might compromise its toolbar technology it managed to fixed it within a few days of finding out about the problem. Microsoft, on the other hand, has known about the problem for six months and is promising that a patch might be available next Tuesday, possibly, maybe.

MSN Toolbar provides tabbed browsing for IE. I've installed it but have only used it for a few minutes. Don't flame me. Just letting people know.

Citing security risks, a state university is urging students to drop Internet Explorer in favor of alternative Web browsers such as Firefox and Safari. In a notice sent to students on Wednesday, Pennsylvania State University's Information Technology Services department recommended that students download other browsers to reduce attacks through vulnerabilities in the Microsoft software. The university said "media reports" and a string of warnings by Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency and Response Team led to its recommendation. "We're not telling people to wipe off IE, because you need IE to do operating-system updates," Robin Anderson, a spokeswoman for Penn State's...

Firefox is one very hot browser, pardon the pun, and your computer will be safer if you switch to this free software that's heating up the charts. There's been a seismic shift during November, with Firefox emerging as the first credible competitive threat in a decade to Microsoft's aging Internet Explorer browser for Windows.

US CERT (the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team), is advising people to ditch Internet Explorer and use a different browser after the latest security vulnerability in the software was exposed. A statement on the CERT site said: "There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites." CERT otherwise recommends users to set security settings to high and disable JavaScriptMalicious code, dubbed variously as "Scob"...