Microsoft issuing emergency "Zero day" browser fix

Microsoft Corp. has announced the release an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software. This "out-of-band" patch addresses a critical security vulnerability that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers. Current estimate indicate that nearly 1 in 500 users have been affected with a potential of nearly 1.4 million.

The "zero-day" vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows hackers to take over victims' machines after they have visited infected Web sites; users don't have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer's programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world's most widely used Web browser.

See Graham Cluley’s blog bog for his recommendation to "Stop viewing porn in Internet Explorer.. for now."

Updates on Microsoft Security Advisory (961051) can be found here.