France, Germany Say Avoid IE Until Security Vulnerability Patched

By Brian Prince
eWEEK.com
2010-01-18

France and Germany are advising users to switch from Internet Explorer to another Web browser until Microsoft patches the zero-day vulnerability linked to attacks on Google and others.

France and Germany have advised their citizens to ditch Internet Explorer (IE) in the wake of reports that an IE zero-day bug was involved in the massive cyber-attack against Google and other companies.

Officials in both countries issued warnings in the past few days through telling users to consider switching from Internet Explorer to other Web browsers until Microsoft delivers a patch. Researchers at McAfee have reported seeing references to attack code for the vulnerability on mailing lists and confirmed the presence of the code on at least one Website.

The IE vulnerability was used in a spate of cyber-attacks targeting Google and other large corporate networks. The attacks, which are believed to have come from China, have prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China altogether, and the U.S. State Department plans to get answers from China this week regarding the incident.

Officials at Microsoft said they are only seeing a limited number of targeted attacks against a small subset of corporations.