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France has echoed calls by the German government for web users to find an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to protect security. Certa, a government agency that oversees cyber threats, warned against using all versions of the web browser. Germany warned users on Friday after malicious code - implicated in attacks on Google - was published online. But Microsoft told BBC News that IE8 was the "most secure browser on the market" and people should upgrade. Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy, said that so far the firm had only seen malicious code that targeted the older version of its browser, IE6. "The risk is minimal," he said. For a web user to be affected, he said, they would have to be using IE6 and visit a compromised website. "There are very few of them out there," he told BBC News. However, if this did occur, a PC could become infected with a "trojan horse", allowing a hacker to take control of the computer and potentially steal sensitive information.