UPDATE: German government to users: Stop using Firefox!

The German government has issued a stern warning to web surfers telling them not to use Firefox because the browser contains a critical security vulnerability.

BürgerCERT, part of the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology, is advising users to stop using Firefox until Mozilla can push a patch out to users to fix the vulnerability that it contains which could be exploited by hackers to run malicious code on users' computers.

Personally, I wonder how much this browser switching really helps people. In the long run, unless you put a method in place where you're using multiple browsers on a regular basis, continually switching to avoid vulnerabilities leaves you in a constant state of flux and badly affects output.

Still, coming shortly after Microsoft rolled out its "Browser Ballot" mechanism across Europe encouraging people to switch to different browsers, including Firefox, this must be a little embarrassing for Mozilla.

If you're a Firefox users and don't want to stop using the browser, Mozilla have a release candidate build of Firefox 3.6.2 available that fixes this issue ... just remember that it's a release candidate and not a final release!

UPDATE: Version 3.6.2 has now been released.

(via Sophos)