As reported by the BBC, current users of all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer browser are currently vulnerable to getting hijacked due to a serious security flaw that has yet to be fixed.

It’s been reported that at least seven versions of the browser have been affected by this flaw and as many as 10,000 websites have been compromised.

Tricking the victims into visiting ‘contaminated’ websites is the main objective. Once in the site, user’s computers get infected with a malicious programming code which then allows hackers to take control of the user’s entire PC: personal information, documents, passwords, etc.

“Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer,” the firm declared in a security advisory alert about the flaw.

Apparently, the unforbidden sites are Chinese and their purpose is to steal passwords that can be sold later on the black market.

Microsoft has announced the flaw is only affecting 0.02% of internet site, however we should bear in mind IE is the default browser for most of the world’s computers; vulnerability is everywhere.

The advice to users, switch browsers!- although Microsoft is seriously battling against this particular action. Instead, they are keeping these news rather quiet while attempting to comfort users by letting them know such threat will be soon resolved.

I was actually going to let the wave pass, after the YouTube episode, but it seems news keep popping up regarding Google storing cached data on its searches.

As I was browsing through Technorati’s site today I noticed that there is some revolt around the subject and it has been affecting people all over the world, in particular cases hovering around the US area.

The first victim was a woman from the state of Colorado, who after running numerous online activities, transactions, managed to get all her personal contact information recorded without her consent. And by all I mean, phone numbers, credit card information, passwords, social security number, etc.

Soon after the thief was pinpointed all the way in Malaysia, the server was disabled, however, the information remained. Many people I’m sure have had similar reactions to that of the victim. Her first comment was how she thought Google was so ‘friendly’ and never imagined it would stock up on user’s personal data.

“Google, like all search engines, is a reflection of the content and information that’s available on the Internet,” said Google’s spokesman Michael Kirkland. “We actively work to keep users informed on how they can stay safe online.”

Other cases involved a professor who actually teaches on the subject, identity theft, whose bank details disclosed an unexpected withdrawal for $3,500. Soon after, he was told he must have clicked on an ad to avoid spyware and instead activated some kind of cloning program which tipped-off the thief.

What should we do to prevent cases such as these? When do you know you’ll be the next victim? Is it the cookies, or pages such as Facebook, YouTube, etc, which trigger thieves to finding out people’s identities and record every data possible? Where exactly does our information end up?

Just don’t underestimate the power of Internet.

Following up on our previous article, Google display URL policy, where the display URL must match the destination URL, well, its been finally put into practice early days this month. However, there’s been a lot of controversy behind this whole issue.

On one hand, we have the advertisers who have been naively punched proceeding this new policy, specially those who have invested a lot of time and money into campaigns and have diligently established a brand for themselves overtime. Then, and this is the downside, we have advertisers, or better said, merciless spammers, who create ads that display your URL, except instead of landing on your site, it redirects you to some random, irrelevant page.

Basically, all the hard work and dedication on behalf of advertisers is systematically going down the drain due to scams such as these. It can slowly ruin your brand’s reputation due to landing page inconsistency but most importantly, it can empty your pockets. Though we’re not talking about anything new here, spammers have been around since Internet’s early days, but this time its being taken a bit far into working around the new Google policy. Its tricking Google into believing all policy standards are being met, when in fact, its all a facade.

As this blogger explains, ‘this could quickly get a lot worse, if they team up with phishing sites that look and feel like your own site. Using such a man-in-the-middle attack, they could steal your customers’ credit card numbers, SSNs, and login information.’ This is entering forbidden territory which could cause imminent death of your brand.

What could happen next? Advertisers and users will begin distrusting the search engine colossus; advertisers will stop running Adwords campaigns and users will double take before they perform their next click. ouch! Better put a stop on this.