Week in Review: IE6 gets patched

week in review lgoo

Microsoft patches IE6

Microsoft's Internet Explorer had a rough week. Last week's China-Google kerfuffle kicked off after a cyber attack reportedly made use of a flaw in the aging IE6 browser, leading to governments in France and Germany advising users to switch to an alternative.

Although the UK hasn't said users should avoid the browser, Firefox had a bit of a bump in downloads, and Microsoft was forced to issue an out-of-band patch. Now, reports are suggesting that Microsoft has known about the flaw for some time.

Google vs China: Round two

The battle between Google and China continued - and lost a bit of steam - this week.

Google denied it had shut its Chinese offices, while rumours circulated that the hacking attack was an insider job.

Then, the US said it was going to speak to China, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying cyber security was a worldwide issue and that internet censorship was the new Berlin Wall.

Since then, Google has released its quarterly results, with chief executive Eric Schmidt saying he was hoping Google wouldn't actually leave China.

The best of the rest

Apple announced it was set to unveil a new device - expected to be a tablet PC - next week, hurting MacBook sales.

The UK Government unveiled its new data site, Bill Gates jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, while Mozilla released the delayed Firefox 3.6 - not bad timing, given IE's troubles.