Internet Explorer 7
Posted on October 11, 2006
Filed Under Internet, Software, Windows |
Internet Explorer has been perceived as having been plagued with security problems over the years. At times the perception has been unfounded but more often than not the concern has been real and proven. It’s not at all uncommon to hear from security pros that IE should never be used and another web browser such as Firefox should be used in its place.
IE really doesn’t have a great track record. A quick search at securityfocus.com will uncover hundreds of vulnerabilities that IE has suffered from in the past few years, yet it has been the most widely used web browser on the planet since 1999.
Microsoft Windows is the most widely used computer operating system out there today. That simple fact will strike fear into many, but it does help explain why Internet Explorer is considered to be so insecure. Internet Explorer has been built-in to Windows and as such it is the web browser people use first and become most accustomed to.
Firefox only broke the 20% web browser usage mark about a year ago and in September reached 27.3%. The next most commonly used browser, Mozilla, barely reached 3%. It’s no wonder that the one web browser that is used by 60% of web surfers worldwide would garner the most attention by security experts and bad guys alike.
Microsoft is on the verge of releasing Internet Explorer 7 and promises better security as well as enhanced features. This new version of IE is now named Windows Internet Explorer rather than the previous Microsoft Internet Explorer.
This new version of Internet Explorer will only run on Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and the upcoming Windows Vista.
IE 7 introduces some notable changes. From a security standpoint one of the most important is that IE will no longer integrate directly into the Windows shell and will become a stand-alone product. In other words, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer will be entirely separated. IE will therefore not be able to act as a file browser.
Running on Windows Vista (but not XP or 2003) IE 7 will run with severely limited rights and will not be able to make any changes to the system. IE will be able to write to the Temporary Internet Files folder but will not be able to install programs or make any other changes. This should enhance security considerably but to benefit you need to upgrade to Windows Vista.
IE 7 will also include a “Phishing Filter” that will help prevent users from becoming victims of phishing attacks. Phishing is a ploy where an email is typically sent advising the receiver that a bank etc. needs to verify their account details. The user is led to fake web site and when they enter their personal details (bank card number, credit card number, etc), the information is stolen.
From a usability standpoint, there are a number of enhancements in IE 7. Those enhancements include:
Tabbed browsing – now you don’t have to open multiple IE windows to open multiple web pages at once, all of the pages can be opened in a single instance of IE.
Feed reader integration – IE 7 will be able to display RSS feeds natively and will allow you to subscribe to feeds. Don’t uninstall your feed reader yet though, IE 7 will not notify you when there is new content on the feeds you subscribe to.
Printing improvements – finally IE will be able to print without cutting off the right side of wide pages! Other printing improvements include landscape printing and shrink-to-fit.
Search bar – IE 7 will have a native search bar that can be customized to use Google, Yahoo!, etc as the default search engine.
A word of warning; Microsoft will be releasing IE 7 as a priority update through the Windows Update mechanism. This means that IE 7 will install itself automatically and in most cases that will be a good thing. With that said if you use any web services or web based applications that aren’t yet ready for IE 7, it would be best to block the installation until the applications are IE 7 ready.
In all, the improvements to IE 7 should make the product a good deal more secure. Being the dominant web browser on the market however, IE will continue to be targeted and security concerns are not likely to simply go away as a result of the upgrade.
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