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Google Hack: It's All Microsoft's Fault

If the world ran on Firefox or Chrome, Google might still be committed to censoring in China. But with more than half of the market still in IE, hackers took advantage of a bug in the Microsoft browser to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese activists.

That's what prompted the Sino-Google conflict and led to Google threatening to take away the special version of its software that censors out anti-government content.

Microsoft admits to the flaw and has posted an advisory, which reported the bug affects nearly all versions of IE 6. With a patch still in the works, Microsoft at first advised setting IE security on "high." Upon further investigation, Redmond realized only IE 6 was vulnerable, and now advises upgrading to a more recent browser.

Posted by Doug Barney on January 20, 2010


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