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Attacks exploiting IE vulnerability increasing

Computer giant Microsoft has issued a warning to users of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser that they risk being exposed to online threats as a result of a critical un-patched vulnerability.

In a follow-up to last week's warning of the weakness, Microsoft says in a blog article that cyber crooks have moved fast to exploit the weakness and some users may have been already exposed.

"Based on our stats, since the vulnerability has gone public, roughly 0.2 per cent of users worldwide may have been exposed to websites containing exploits of this latest vulnerability," says the company.

"That percentage may seem low, however it still means that a significant number of users have been affected."

Microsoft says "the trend for now is going upwards" and as of Saturday (December 13th), an increase of over 50 per cent had been registered.

Last week, internet security concerns were raised by Microsoft when it warned that a newly discovered vulnerability could expose internet users to online threats if they just happened to visit an infected website.

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