As reported by most major news outlets, the flaw in MS IE left the browser vulnerable to attack on a wide array of unknown websites that hackers had implanted with malicious code that, when installed, slurped up sensitive information from unsuspecting hard drives.
Microsoft has released a full statement about the security breach, which affect all versions of MS IE from version 5 onward, including version 8 beta 2.
Because of the widespread nature of the vulnerability, many prominent tech pundits made a dramatic recommendation: dump Internet Explorer.
"I would advise Windows users to consider browsing the web with anything other than Internet Explorer, at least until Microsoft issues a patch to fix this vulnerability," said Brian Krebs, Washington Post’s tech security writer. "It is not my intention to over-hype the situation, but as we have seen time and again, attackers are usually very quick to take advantage of flaws in IE because the program is the default browser for close to 80 percent of the planet."
Mozilla, the company behind the popular open-source browser Firefox, put out a quick security update of its own, most likely in response to the Microsoft fracas.
To download the Microsoft patch, click here.