Germany's Federal Office for Information Security has said that users should find a more secure browser than Internet Explorer. Following the Germans' lead, the French government is also advising its citizens to switch browsers until Microsoft patches the flaw.

This comes as a response to Microsoft's admission that Internet Explorer was the major target in the cyber attacks on Google's systems, and although security advice has been released, Microsoft has not yet released a patch.

Microsoft normally distributes software patches on the first Tuesday of each month. When a significant exploit targets Internet Explorer, Microsoft normally releases an out-of-cycle patch quickly.

On his blog, UK security vendor Sophos' senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said the German government's advice that internet users should switch to alternative browsers is unlikely to be well received at Microsoft.

"And pressure for the company to release an 'out-of-band' patch to resolve the security flaw as soon as possible will continue to grow," he added.

Cluley pointed out that some users may be unfamiliar with alternative browsers, which can cause support problems. In addition, some web-based applications may not work at all if you're not using Internet Explorer.

The exploits targeting Internet Explorer have appeared on the internet, and versions 6.7 and 8 of the platform are vulnerable.

Ironically, if users decide to switch away from Internet Explorer, but want to patch their systems manually, they will still have to use Internet Explorer for this.

Internet Explorer is the world's most popular browser, albeit with a market share well down from the heady days before Mozilla's Firefox browser came to prominence.

Market share figures from web analytics firm Net Applications show Internet Explorer with nearly 63 per cent of the market share, and Mozilla's Firefox on nearly 25 per cent.