Patch those family 'puters

The latest critical security patch from Microsoft was all about the Explorer Web browser, and this is an important patch for the computers of avid Web users at your house. "That doesn't mean that Firefox and Chrome are exempt from other vulnerabilities, writes my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid in Yahoo's "Connected Parent," but if your family uses Explorer, here's the scoop on that: "The latest threat is a flaw in all versions of Internet Explorer that makes it possible for an attacker to take remote control of your PC, capture user names and passwords and log keystrokes," Larry reports. A week after the flaw became known, Microsoft released a fix, InformationWeek reported. It probably updated your PC automatically if you have automated updates turned on. "To be sure, you can manually scan your computer to see if its security fixes are up-to-date by visiting WindowsUpdate.microsoft.com," Larry writes. "For this particular site, you must use Internet Explorer (other browsers such as Google's Chrome and Mozilla Firefox works with the vast majority of sites but not this one)."