French Government calls on internet users to abandon Internet Explorer

AUSTRALIANS have been advised against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) because of a security threat.

Local web users have been advised to install security patches or switch browsers, while two countries - France and Germany - have now issued warnings against all versions of Microsoft's browser.

Germany warned users Friday after a malicious code - implicated in recent attacks on Google - was published online, and now Certa, a French Government agency that oversees cyber threats, has warned against using all recent versions of the web browser.
While the Google attacks were designed to exploit Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft has released a security advisory for Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8.

Microsoft said it has only seen a "very limited number of targeted attacks against a small subset of corporations".

"The attacks that we have seen to date are only effective against Internet Explorer 6."

"We are not seeing any widespread attacks and thus far we are not seeing attacks focused on consumers."

The company recommended users upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 - which is technically still vulnerable - and anyone using older versions of Windows XP to upgrade to Service Pack 3.