Microsoft has released this Thursday a security update to correct a critical flaw in Internet Explorer, unveiled last weekend and has already been exploited by hackers.
The software company said that this patch would be available for all clients, including Windows XP, even if they stopped earlier this month to provide security updates for this operating system launched 13 years ago and still used by 15 to 25% of computers in the world. “We decided to correct the fault, to fix it quickly for all our customers,” said a spokesman for the group Redmond on the official Microsoft blog.
This flaw unveiled last weekend by the security software company FireEye affects Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11, could allow a hacker to take control of an affected system, install viruses, create accounts or erase data.
According to the research firm Netmarketshare, the different versions of Internet Explorer concerned represent 55% of Internet browser used on PC, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers are the other popular browsers for the rest of the Internet traffic.
According to the representative of Microsoft, the number of attacks recorded having used this particular vulnerability is “very low” and fears related to this vulnerability are “frankly exaggerated.”
Even with this security update, we recommend everyone using Internet Explorer to update to another browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for a better experience on Internet with a better protection but also better performances.