Indeed, both Tom Davis, head of government affairs for consulting firm Deloitte, and Scott Charney, head of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing division were offered the position and turned it down.

FORBES: Magazine Article

"We're currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact, " said Dave Forstrom, the director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, in a statement.

BBC: Microsoft warns on IE browser bug

The problem is so pressing that Bill Gates pulled Microsoft's 7, 000 systems programmers off their jobs for all of February for a Trustworthy Computing initiative aimed at making more secure operating systems.

FORBES: Scare Tactics