Microsoft have today confirmed a vulnerability in Internet Explorer, the second this year alone.

This new security vulnerability could allow a hacker or cyber criminals to access data stored on the infected computer, This can easily be done by redirecting the user to a Website posing as an authentic site but which is infected with malicious code. As soon as the user clicks on to the web page, the malicious code is automatically downloaded to their PC, giving the hacker access to the computer and all files and documents.

Back in January, Microsoft hadto release an emergency patch to plug a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 that allowed criminals to hack in to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists and Chinese dissidents, and attack Google.

Only computer users running Windows XP, the operating system launched in 2001, are at risk from the vulnerability, said Microsoft. It recommended that users enable a feature within XP known as the “network protocol lockdown”

Users running Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 in Protected Mode are not at risk, said Microsoft, and nor are those users running Windows Vista and the most recent Microsoft operating system, Windows 7.