New IE hole exploited in attacks on U.S. firms

[Peaches]

January 14, 2010 12:37 PM PST

New IE hole exploited in attacks on U.S. firms

by Elinor Mills

Attackers targeting Google and a host of other U.S. companies recently used software that exploits a new hole in Internet Explorer, Microsoft said Thursday.

"Internet Explorer was one of the vectors" used in the attacks that Google disclosed earlier this week, Microsoft said in a statement. "To date, Microsoft has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE 6," the statement said.

The vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 6, IE 7, and IE 8 on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 R2, as well as IE 6 Service Pack 1 on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Microsoft said in an advisory on Thursday afternoon.

Google disclosed the attacks targeting it and other U.S. companies on Tuesday and said the attacks originated in China. Human rights activists who use Gmail also were targeted, Google said.

Full story at CNET News - http://news.cnet.com/security/