It looks like there's a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer that can be used to compromise user identity. Since this spcific flaw doesn't exist in other browsers, and it's not possible to tell in advance whether a given site is infected, this advice makes sense:

"What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals," he said. "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."

Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."

Not surprisingly, Microsoft has different advice:

"I cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw," said John Curran, head of Microsoft UK's Windows group.

The thing is, MS' advice might not even be that bad. It sounds bad when you think of this flaw in isolation, but how many undetected flaws exist in the various browsers? It's not a given that you'll be safer using, say, Firefox. I like to think I'm safer using Firefox (and when I use Windows, it's what I use) - but to be honest, I mostly use it due to the superior (IMHO) set of features.