Quickbooks and IE security levels

My company operates computers using Windows XP Professional. We also use Quickbooks Pro Edition 2003. Today, automated updates were loaded on to my computer. When I tried to open Quickbooks, a message popped up on the screen that the security setting on Internet Explorer was set too high for Quickbooks to operate. The instructions directed me to lower my security setting from "Medium" to "Medium-Low". When I lowered the setting, I received a message stating that I was lowering the security setting below the level recommended by Microsoft (followed by "Are you sure you want to change the setting?"). Quickbooks' helpdesk could tell me how to restore the settings to before the download took place, but couldn't answer the basic question: "Am I taking an unacceptable security risk by lowering the security setting to medium-low?" Does anyone out there know what's going on, and whether medium-low is an acceptable security level to avoid hacking?