Microsoft's Internet Explorer Can Make Your PC Vulnerable

Anita - Apr 23, 2019

A security researcher has discovered that Microsoft's Internet Explorer makes PCs become vulnerable, even if it is just installed in them.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has always had a reputation for its poor security for many years. Now, a security researcher has discovered that the browser makes PCs that are preinstalled with it vulnerable.

As per John Page researcher, with an unpatched exploit in the handling of the MHT files (web archive format of IE) of these browsers, hackers are able to steal Windows users’ local data and also spy on them.

Engadget reported on April 21:

This vulnerability affects Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7, and Windows 10.

The report continued:

This news appeared when Microsoft giant reached out to some of its users when dealing with the data breach case of Outlook.com. The company informed them of hack that exposed the data sent to hackers over emails. In the period from Jan 1 to March 28, these hackers kept on accessing the victims' accounts.

Microsoft claimed in its email that besides the emails' content which includes attachments, other things that the hackers could have probably viewed are subject lines of sent and received emails, folder names, and account mail addresses.

It is worth noting that Microsoft has detected that a support agent’s credentials for its mail service were compromised, leading to unauthorized access.