American and British governments warn of Internet Explorer bug

Microsoft revealed a nasty bug in its Internet Explorer browser on Saturday. Today, the U.S. government issued an advisory warning people not to use Microsoft’s browser. The bug, Microsoft reported, “may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer.” In case that’s not clear enough: It means a hacker could run any code they want on your system, simply by getting you to visit a malicious website.

The U.S. and UK governments on Monday advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used to launch attacks. The Internet Explorer bug, disclosed over the weekend, is the first high-profile computer threat to emerge since Microsoft stopped providing security updates for Windows XP earlier this month. That means PCs running the 13-year-old operating system will remain unprotected, even after Microsoft releases updates to defend against it. The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory released on Monday that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer could lead to “the complete compromise” of an affected system.