I thought I'd post this more generally than just on the Computer site...
I have just been told that it was announced a little while ago that Internet Explorer has a fault or a virus or something that can't be fixed until January, and that people are being advised to use a different provider.
The fault that was in the news was patched on the 17th December - IE is still thought to be an unsecure browser and I would recommend using Firefox if you have any concerns.