Is IE7 safe to use? I thought so??

iMacMart

iMacMart

iMacMart

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IT manager at my plaace of work says it's a 'servere breach of perimeter security' lol

I think its safe and can't be any worse than IE6 can it?

I want to prove him wrong :)
 
He's an ex boss of mine too ........grrrr

Called me up when he found it on my pc a few weeks ago ranting about how I should know better and I could have caused major issues for the company IT dept?? what the...........

New IE7 has to be more secure than the old with updates I said ?

I think he was trying to flex his muscles....even though he's 4 foot nothing and would snap if I sneezed in his general direction!!! :p

I work for another dept now and having IE7 on my home pc I miss the tabs and setup on my laptop, can I have both installed IE6 and 7 or is it a case of one or the other?
 
I work in the IT Security industry as a consultant and from my own experience it's a lot safer then previous versions aslong as you secure it up properly.

It will probably suffer the same buffer overflows over time that other version's of IE have, this is due to it being so popular not due to being rubbish.

If you also notice hackers are turning their eyes towards Firefox more and more as it gains popularity.

The trend in hacking these days is to make money, so they want to run a browser based exploit and install a back trojan when can then be used to launch DDOS attacks or exploit money directly from you by encrypting files etc. to this point they will go after the browser with the biggest audience for the greatest chance of success.

One thing I do is automatically block all 3rd party cookies, this is mainly to stop then horrible marketing agencies filling your machine with rubbish and then allow 1st party cookies, also run at a high - medium level and block popups.

I tied blocking scripting completely but this stops a lot of websites to stop working.

Make sure you have the phising filter turned on, if you think a link looks dodgy don't click on it as simple as that. If you want to kow if a sites safe, download this tool from www.siteadvisor.com, it is awesome and doesn't impact your browser and best of all FREE

Active X is also a big security risk but it's down to you whether you want to turn it off.

On top of all that make sure you have to date AV and Anti spyware software.

I use both IE and Firefox and have no allegience to either, I also use Linux and Windows.
 
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Some companies want a standard version of the browser on all PCs until the latest is checked out with the local intranet and any applications they use, probably why he was stroppy with you as it could cause problems with other users demanding upgraded browsers.

Though more likely he was just joking about in an IT kind of way.
 
Go for it, the default security level is good, just make sure you turn of password cashing and them sort of things.

Also as I said sort your cookies to block 3rd party ones and automatically accept 1st party ones and alow sesion cookies (used for shopping usually)
 
Either he's a fool - or, more likely, the company has a policy of only using software that they have approved. The breach of security is more likely to be that you installed and are using new software without permission than that there's anything specifically wrong with IE7.
 
Agreed,

What you also need to take into account is Microsoft are very conscious of the risk security is posing to their business and reputation and have spent absoutely millions to make it secure and test.

Think they know better then the IT manager, Microsoft have some very good docs on IE 7 security on their webistes for IT PROS, I suggest he goes and reads.
 
Yeah it's partly to do with company policies but I know of a few directors that have IE7 installed and he has said nothing about that?

I think he likes the power trip tbh......


So am I right in saying I can only have one or the other installed not both?
 
Not that I'm aware of it detects IE6 and will upgrade, I could be wrong but I was never given the choice when I upgraded in XP
 
if the guy was keeping his systems properly up to date

all of the PCs would have IE7 now as i believe it was put down as a "critical" update wasnt it ?
 
theres nothing wrong with IE7 compared to IE6 afaik and maybe your admin should have made plans/submitted change requests etc sooner for a mass deployment of it. unless he is aware of that because there are sites that your company use that havent been fully tested as 'working' with IE7 which is why they're holding off.

currently IE7 installs are blocked out at my work place through group policy (i think) as it does indeed screw up an web based app we use. we dont want the hassle of end users updating to IE7 because "they can" then moaning to us on the phone when their web based app is "suddenly broken" --same probably applies to your place.

you could know more than the IT manager at your place but his hands are tied if there are policies in place at your work dictating what can/cant be installed on machines.

having said all of that, he may be a power hungry fool, but i cant judge him on that as i dont know him or how your IT department operates.

and tbh unless you've moved companies, i wouldnt email him this thread either to spite him. random people on a forum wont sway his mind to let you have IE7 installed, if hes anything like me, he'd go out of his way to target you/your machine and lock it down through any way possible, remove admin rights, enforce group policies etc.

bottom line: hes the IT manager, you're not, if you dont like the rules/policies of the company/IT manager, find a new place to work.
 
On Vista, IE7 is it is the most secure web browser bar none. On XP it is probably still marginally better than the obvious competitors. Although that's not really hard considering Firefox is like swiss cheese nowadays.
 
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