Microsoft IE vulnerability to receive urgent fix Wednesday

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 07:09

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft Australia’s statement continues: “Until the update is available, Microsoft strongly encourages customers to follow the Protect Your Computer Guidance at www.microsoft.com.au/security, which includes activating the Automatic Update setting in Windows to ensure that they receive the update as soon as it is available, enabling your firewall, ensuring your antivirus and antispyware is up to date. 

“Those who already have Automatic Updates enabled will receive the patch as soon as it is available, for those who do not have Automatic Updates enabled, Microsoft recommends visiting www.microsoft.com.au/security and clicking on Latest Security Updates Customers.

“They can also take additional precautions by setting their Internet Explorer security settings to “High” and using Internet Explorer 7 in “Protected Mode. 

“Microsoft is hosting a webcast to address customer questions on this bulletin on 17 December, 2008 at 1:00PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)/ 18 December, at 8:00AM AEDT (NSW, VIC, ACT).  (Tuesday in the US, Wednesday in Australia).

“Register now for the Out-of-band December Security Bulletin Webcast.

“After this date, this webcast is available on-demand.”

So, although it would have been a lot better had a patch been made earlier, a patch is finally on the way, well outside of Microsoft’s normal monthly “Patch Tuesday” schedule, to respond to the threat.

It’s also important for Mac and Linux users, and users of other browsers feeling smug about the issue that security vulnerabilities are regularly found and patched – even on Linux – and regularly updating your operating system/browser/software is vital, no matter what OS you use.

It’s also important to ensure your Internet security software is the latest version and is always set to update automatically.

It’s also worth buying and installing browser independent security software such as TrustDefender. This would shut down any banking Trojans that may have been loaded after unpatched exposure to an infected site, thus protecting your banking transactions even if your computer is otherwise infected to the gills with known or unknown malware – see details at TrustDefender’s site for more information.