RemoteITtechSupport · Windows Forum · RoseCitySoftware

---

Home > TechFiles

By: Arie Slob

• October 25, 2006 •

After a 20-month development period, Microsoft this month released Internet Explorer 7. Despite a security overhaul of Internet Explorer 6 in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, Internet Explorer still is the weakest link in any system. And we all know that a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Internet Explorer 7 offers some improvements over previous versions, but as far as I am concerned security is still not taken far enough!

Internet Explorer offers a good mechanism to customize your security, with the Content zones. You can access the settings by selecting Tools > Internet Options from the Internet Explorer menu, and choosing the Security tab.

You will see that Internet Explorer lets you set different levels of security for 4 different types of sites: Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites and Restricted sites.

Without any further action, the default security for sites on the Internet will be the Internet zone. By default, this is set to Medium-High security (an improvement over IE6 which was set to Medium). I just want to highlight some of the settings which will be in effect:

So we'll make some changes to make the Internet zone more secure by pressing the Custom Level button, and changing the following settings:

Now this will have an impact on Web sites you visit. If you want to be able to run ActiveX or Scripting on certain Web sites, just add them to the Trusted sites zone. You can add Web sites by selecting the Trusted sites icon, and pressing the Sites button (once you are in Internet Explorer's Security Internet Options). Note that by default, you can only add secure sites here (sites using https), just uncheck the Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone, and you can add any site.

Microsoft has a handy tool that will add a menu choice Add to Trusted Zone and Add to Restricted Zone to the Tools menu in Internet Explorer. You can download this tool from the Microsoft Web site [127 KB]. It is called Internet Explorer 5 Power Tweaks Web Accessory, but it works fine on Internet Explorer 7.

By default, the security setting for Trusted sites in Internet Explorer 7 have also been changed. In IE6, Trusted sites where using the default Low setting, In IE7 Trusted sites now uses the Medium security setting that was previously used for the Internet zone. Using the most critical settings as mentioned above, in the Trusted sites zone these are set at:

The changes above won't guarantee you will never have a problem, but they will certainly make it a whole lot less likely. Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, make sure you have all the latest Windows updates, and make it a practice never to open unknown email attachments.

*) Making the changes listed will affect your Internet experience severely! Most Web sites use JavaScript for their navigation menus, and a lot of Web sites do not take into consideration you want to switch off JavaScript (some 98% of visitors to our Web site have JavaScript enabled).

But the problem with Active Scripting is that it keeps getting used in many exploits, most recent example's are found in the Secunia 22477 and 22542 advisories. When you have active scripting switched off you won't be able to click the links, since they are not 'normal' HTML links but links to activate a JavaScript.

As with a lot of things, if you know what you are doing while browsing the 'Net, that's more than half of your security, but you might want to consider changing some of IE7's default settings. We have just listed the settings which we think should be considered for a change, you can choose your own settings to adjust your Web browsing experience and find a balance between security & usability.

Surf Safe!

Give your comments on this article.

Last Updated: October 25, 2006

Recent Forum Discussions

windows automatic updates forced (5)

Windows ME and Explorer.exe always causing er.. (0)

Looking for a TV tuner card and a video captu.. (0)

Windows 7 notifies that installed copy is not.. (2)

Certificate Export Wizard (1)

IE 10 Opening in Full Page (4)

MS Office 2010 Set up for exams (3)

dissable auto copy (7)

E-mail Mail Merge with Windows 7 & Office.. (3)

Windows 8 sound scheme (4)

Code 19 Error Toshiba Optical Drive (2)

USB Memory Stick vs USB Flash Ext HDD (2)

New Windows 7 install - Fan keeps spinning (4)

Why does Firefox sometimes hang when closing? (8)

blue screen help (5)

[Mediocre wireless reception with new Dell xp.. (5)

Strongvault (6)

Do You Like the Windows 8 UI Design? (38)

How to get a copy of sent mail from MS outloo.. (4)

Deleting a page from Facebook (7)

---

© HelpWithWindows.com. All rights reserved.
HelpWithWindows is a division of FDMA Media LLC.
Privacy Policy
Design by Andreas Viklund.

Webmaster