US government advises using alternatives to Microsoft Internet Explorer

The United States Department of Homeland Security advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers have used to launch attacks.

The US Computer Emergence Readiness Team said in an advisory released on Monday morning that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer "could lead to the complete compromise of an affected system".

News of the vulnerability surfaced over the weekend.