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SOFTWARE INDUSTRY NEWS |
Microsoft to expedite IE patch |
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Recent advisories by the German, French and Australian governments against the use of its Internet Explorer browser saw a significant jump in download volumes of Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Consequently, Microsoft has decided to expedite its patch for IE instead of bundling it with its next routine update scheduled for February. The German and French governments had advised citizens to avoid using Internet Explorer as it may be prone to attack by hackers, as acknowledged by Microsoft in the recent incident involving Google and hackers from China. Germany warned its citizens about the risks of using IE as the malicious code used by hackers was reportedly published online, creating the risk of copy cat attacks. A report by the BBC cited security firm Sophos as saying that it had now witnessed these "copycat" sites trying to exploit the IE vulnerability. The undying media reports of IE's vulnerability to attack was said to be in no small part responsible for Microsoft's decision to issue an out-of-band update. Following the government advisories, downloads of competing browsers, specially those of Mozilla Firefox and Norwegian browser Opera, spiked substantially. A Wall Street Journal blog quoted Mozilla as acknowledging 300,000 incremental downloads over and above its usual volume and Opera Software reported a doubling of downloads in Germany to 18,000 a day over the weekend following the German government's advisory. News reports said Firefox was now a close second to Internet Explorer in Europe after notching up its market share with the increased downloads driven by the government advisories. Reports said that some markets may actually see Firefox overtake IE as the number one browser, including markets such as Germany and Austria. In a blog post, Microsoft's general manager George Stathakopoulos continued to advocate an upgrade to IE8 from IE6, the browser that was compromised in the attack on Google. “Given the significant level of attention this issue has generated, confusion about what customers can do to protect themselves and the escalating threat environment Microsoft will release a security update out-of-band for this vulnerability,” he said. Microsoft will provide specific timing for the release sometime tomorrow. |
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