By now you’ve certainly heard about the gaping security hole in Microsoft Internet Explorer. (If not, see Paul Thurrott’s article.) All versions of IE seem to be at risk, and thousands of websites have already been injected with the malicious code that affects the browser. While security experts were almost unanimously telling users to stop using IE immediately and switch to another browser (or to at least run their machines without administrative rights), Microsoft was scrambling to release a patch. The company’s security bulletin finally went out on Wednesday, a full week after other news sources reported the security hole. In case you haven’t already switched from IE to Firefox or Google Chrome, the Microsoft IE patch is available at the company’s website. Here at Penton, we heard nothing from our own IT department regarding the IE security hole or the patch. However, my machine did mysteriously shut down on its own on Wednesday to “install needed updates.” I assume that was it. :-)