Windows Vista Weblog

Hackers Advise Microsoft on IE7

by duncan on September 30th, 2005

In a classic case of poachers turned gamekeepers, hackers (or, the “security research community”) have been helping Microsoft sort out IE7 at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Of course, we’ve know this sort of conversation has been going on for a while : remember the Black Hat drinks party at the Googleplex? But for Tony Chor, Group Program Manager at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team : “It’s the first time we’ve ever come out ahead of a product release to present and get feedback,” he said, speaking of a presentation to a group of hackers.

According to PCWorld :

Chor went a step further, saying Microsoft has maintained an “adversarial” relationship with the hacking community in the past, but “that wasn’t working. It just made them mad and we didn’t benefit from their passion and expertise.” But the software giant is putting that past behind it, and its goal is to engage the “security research community” more in the future, presenting at more hacker conventions and giving them a chance to critique some of Microsoft’s work ahead of releases.

Tony Chor confirmed that the Beta 2 version of IE7 will probably be ready by the end of the year.

Share This

Related Stories

Microsoft organizes party for hackers
I Love It When The World Goes Crazy Breaking Windows Vista
MAC Users Ought to Know How Secure their OS really Is
Windows Vista Security: Securing Vista Against Malicious Attacks
Link Reads: 04.11.08

POSTED IN: IE7, Windows Vista