Security improvements in Internet Explorer 8

Security improvements in Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft is beefing up its upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser with several security improvements against hackers and phishers. Eric Lawrence, Microsoft’s program manager of Internet Explorer security, says IE 8 Beta 1 will have more defenses against cross-site scripting, malware protection and URL highlighting. File upload paths will also be changed to read only. This will prevent hackers from reading direct paths to important files.

When you visit a site, the url will be checked against a database of websites known to contain malware. Suspicious sites will come up with a red background and a very large and noticeable warning box. This is designed to replace the rather innocuous warning box we currently see in IE 7 – the one that most people just ignore. URL highlighting will further protect users by highlighting good web addresses in black, while suspicious ones will be in gray.

Beta version of IE can be downloaded from here
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/getitnow.mspx