IE users urged to switch browser

The recently discovered flaw in the Internet Explorer browser seems to be good new for Mozilla, Opera and Chrome. UK government and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advised Internet users to switch to another browser until the flaw in the IE is fixed.

The bug is the first major one discovered after Microsoft stopped providing security updated for Widows XP. However, the flaw is also present in Internet Explorer 9, 10 and 11, versions running on Windows Vista, 7 and Windows 8. Microsoft in working on the clock to fix the issue. But until then users were advised not to use IE.

“We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,” was written in an official statement released by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (Part of the Homeland Security). A similar advisory was released by the British National Computer Emergency Response Team. Both divisions advised Internet users to update any anti-virus software used and using alternative browsers.

IE is still the number one browser on the market according to research firm NetMarketShare with a percentage in the high 40s. FireEye Inc was the first security firm to discover the flaw in the browser. Allegedly. It could give an cyber attacker the possibility of installing malware software, stealing and deleting data on any PC, remotely, if the designated target visits certain Websites.

FireEye even went a step further and said a sophisticated group of hackers have been using the exploit and targeted certain US based firms tied to financial and defense sectors. “It is still unclear what the motives of this attack group are. It appears to be broad-spectrum intel gathering,” said FireEye spokesman Vitor De Sousa.

Recent statistics show that IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the most common used browsers, these three combining for almost 85 percent of the market. Safari and Opera complete the top five.