As per the information forwarded by Microsoft, a software update for Internet Explorer is on the cards on Thursday, with the software maker intending to patch the last-week-reported security vulnerability that allowed hackers to launch attacks - supposedly linked to China - on Google and nearly 20 other companies.

Jerry Bryant, Microsoft’s senior security program manager, revealed that the patch “addresses the vulnerability related to recent attacks against Google and a small subset of corporations. Once applied, customers are protected against the known attacks that have been widely publicized.”

The hacking attacks have received immense media attention, more so after Microsoft admitted that a flaw in its Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) was one of the key vectors used by the hackers.

To ensure the safety of the Web users in their respective countries, German and French, and even Australian, authorities have been advising Web users to discontinue the use of IE and to switch over to alternative browsers, at least for the time being, until Microsoft finds a fix for the much-hyped problem in its IE6.

Noting that competitors are reportedly having a field day after such announcements, Mark Miller, director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative, said that though the company had been “working around the clock” to develop and test a security update for eliminating the IE6 vulnerability, it could not release a fix for the flaw sooner.