August 27th, 2008
Has Firefox already matched IE privacy features?
Microsoft hasn’t even shipped its Internet Explorer 8 but already some Firefox developers say they have a better privacy solution.
Perspectives, hatched at Carnegie Mellon, thwarts so-called “Man in the Middle” attacks on SSH (secure) sites by creating a virtual notary that can check the validity of an unsigned security certificate.
I have already been burned by over-zealous security in trying to reach the site where I write these posts. The standard security warnings read like Windows error messages. The results from Perspectives promise to be more straightforward.
Versions for Windows, Linux, and OS X are already available.
The Explorer feature, dubbed “porn mode” by wags, burns your browsing trail, along with cookies and cache, with each session. Expect this to be a default at Internet cafes around the world.
The incident illustrates a key advantage of open source. Academic labs don’t need permission to improve popular code — they just offer it online as they finish the project.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Linux and Open Source via Email alerts or RSS.
