Software giant Microsoft has warned that Internet Explorer users, of which there are about 900 million, are now at risk of a vulnerability that could allow hackers to hijack computers.
In a security bulletin issued by the company, Microsoft says the flaw affects all versions of Windows, but also says that it hasn’t encountered “indications of active exploitation of the vulnerability”.
But Microsoft’s Angela Gunn wrote in a blog post that the whole intent of an attack would be to somehow convince users into handing over their information.
“For instance, an attacker could construct an HTML link designed to trigger a malicious script and somehow convince the targeted user to click it. When the user clicked that link, the malicious script would run on the user’s computer for the rest of the current Internet Explorer session.”
The company is currently working on a security fix, but a temporary one is available through the company’s website.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
