US Department of Homeland Security Warns Users to Stop Using Internet Explorer Due to Serious Bug

Internet Explorer has been the brunt of the latest vulnerability where all versions are susceptible to allowing hackers to install malware onto computers through a bug all without the user from ever knowing. This threat has extracted warnings all over the Internet from several security firms as well as The Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Homeland Security sent out a warning to Americans to stop using Internet Explorer until a fix for the current bug has been released and applied by Microsoft. This warning comes fresh off of the heels of other well-known Internet security issues, such as the recent Heartbleed security flaw, which was also addressed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through their US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team).

Computer users should know that the Internet Explorer bug is serious, even though Microsoft has a solution on the way. In the meantime, before computer users apply any updates of a possible Microsoft patch for the Internet Explorer bug, computer users should completely abandon use of Internet Explorer. There are several browser alternatives to IE, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. These browsers would serve as a temporary solution to this problem. Additionally, computer users may disable Adobe Flash to avoid the consequences from the IE bug, which may create a situation where a remote hacker could infiltrate your computer and install malware that causes serious damages or lead to identity theft.

It is said that about 26% of the complete internet-connected computer market utilizes some recent version of Internet Explorer. With this Internet Explorer bug, it means that over a quarter of computers are susceptible to this serious security flaw in Internet Explorer. Looking back at this issue, it can be said that it is one of the largest security flaws in the history of the internet, as far as a bug within a popular and widely used application.

Due to The Department of Homeland Security's warning to US computer users to stop using Internet Explorer for now, many PC users have adhered to the notice. Because of this, the Internet Explorer bug has not propagated to the levels that many security experts once thought it would surmount to. However, as a fix from Microsoft to the IE bug sits on the horizon, computer users start to forget the potential severity of the flaw and we could see additional issues surmount before everything is all fixed and we are back to business as usual for using Internet Explorer.