IE Vulnerability

Microsoft announced they have a zero day vulnerability in versions 6, 7, and 8 of their famed browser. The majority of people use a combination of other browsers, but for everyone out there that prefer IE and throw caution to the wind, here's what you need to know. 

The vulnerability exists because some embedded feature that can be accessed in a certain way allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code (a.k.a. load viruses on your computer) and do their thing. If you are running recent versions of IE, stay away from questionable sites and don't click on spam email until Microsoft releases their patch for it. 

If you are feeling adventurous and want to try a new browser, I'd recommend Firefox with a couple add-ons such as flashblock and certpatrol. You could also try the Bork!Bork!Bork! add-on that converts pages to Swedish-English like the Chef Muppet, though it wont protect you from malware. 

Alternatively, you could spin up a VM and do your IE web browsing there to contain the risk in the virtual machine. Then just revert to a snapshot before you opened a browser and infection or no, you are good to go.