News outlets are reporting a significant new vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer. There have been only very limited reports of this vulnerability being exploited by hackers… so far. At the end of yesterday, Microsoft released a workaround solution for this vulnerability. After testing it, TekTegrity began deploying to all of our clients starting mid-morning today. We expect that most systems will have the workaround silently deployed by TekTegrity’s technical staff by the end of this week.
In addition, Microsoft is actively working on a permanent patch for this vulnerability, and TekTegrity will deploy as soon as it becomes available.
Even without a patch or workaround, TekTegrity provides a security “umbrella” called OpenDNS for our clients. While OpenDNS cannot catch every exploit attempt, it does block many web sites that try to use a vulnerability like this one to gain access to your computer.
Our recommendations:
• The best way you can avoid this and many other vulnerabilities is to not open links or attachments in emails where you are not certain the source is legitimate.
• Keep in mind, Windows XP is end of life and no longer supported by Microsoft. That means Microsoft will not be developing a patch for this on Windows XP computers that are using Internet Explorer. While the workaround solution is supposed to work on Windows XP, the only safe solution for a computer that is still on XP is to replace it with a computer running a current version of Windows.
Feel free to contact your Account Manager with any questions you may have.