This is the kind of thing that makes me loath MS.

A few days ago, the Internet Explorer Team at Microsoft put a new post on their blog. It talked about some of the new security enhancements to IE that can be found in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later.

The new security feature talked about was something called “Mark of the Web.” Here is the premise:
(1) The OS and browser are so insecure (or users are so stupid) that:
(2) Malicious content is all too easily loaded onto the user's computer that:
(3) Content run from the browser's Local Machine Zone will now have fewer privileges than content found in the Internet Zone.
(4) So any content meant to run from the Local Machine Zone must have the "Mark of the Web" to give it elevated privileges.

What this they are really saying is that their products (Outlook, IE, and Windows) are so insecure that IE trusts content found in the Internet more than content found on your own computer!! Is anyone listening? Clearly the evolution of this is that Microsoft will have to prevent users form using their own computers because they cannot trust the user. This is the kind of thing that makes me loath MS.

If Microsoft did not have so much money I would say they are in real trouble. If only that were true.


[tags: Microsoft IE Internet Explorer tech browser programming security]