Yet another bug has surfaced in Internet Explorer 7, and Microsoft are urgently preparing a patch for the security flaw which could allow hackers to steal passwords and gain control of computers.

Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer - Microsoft.com

The BBC report that as many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since last week to take advantage of the security flow, mostly serving up programs that steal computer game passwords, but the flaw could be "adopted by more financially motivated criminals.

So it doesn't sound like anything to stop you surfing as yet, especially if you're going to websites you know.And make sure you point IE7 at Windows Update sometime within the next 24 hours to download the patch!

I'm desperately trying to find an article somewhere which compares the discovered and patched security flaws in the top browsers but there doesn't seem to be one immediately available. I'm just interested to see if IE7 actually is any worse than Firefox, Opera or Safari or whether Microsoft's reputation and communications policy let it down. Once tarred with the bug brush, always tarred?

If anyone has a link to such a report i'd be interested to have it!