Internet Explorer 9 Now Available To Download, Domain Dedicated To The Browser Might Be Abused Soon
Microsoft released version 9 of its Internet Explorer web browser. It can be can downloaded from windows.microsoft.com or from the Beauty of the Web site www.beautyoftheweb.com.
Beautyoftheweb.com was set up by Microsoft and it is dedicated to the new browser. Unfortunately, that site isn’t hosted under the microsoft.com domain, nor does it have an SSL certificate to confirm that it belongs to Microsoft. Using this site to distribute the browser goes against the advice of downloading software only from known vendor websites. Copycat malicious sites claiming to distribute IE 9 will probably appear shortly, if they aren’t around yet.
There are no significant changes between the RC and the final build. Microsoft tells us that performance has been improved on low-end machines (with low-end graphics cards), but it can not be confirmed yet. There’s also a handy link from the Tracking Protection UI to the ready-made Tracking Protection Lists.
Internet Explorer 9 includes a number of security improvements that make the upgrade worth your consideration. These include application reputation capabilities that are part of the SmartScreen feature that helps protect the user against socially-engineered malware. The browser also supports the notion of Pinned Sites, which implements “secure launch” capabilities to safeguard users’ sessions with important websites. Internet Explorer 9 also improves its resistance to exploits by embracing support for DEP/NX, ASLR and SafeSEH memory protection capabilities.
The new browser also improves the messages its users see when they download files and programs; the messages are designed to make it easier for the users to assess the risk of opening such files.
If you already have the Release Candidate or Beta versions installed, the RTW (release to world) build will be offered via Windows Update (presumably tomorrow morning). If you don’t have the RC or Beta builds installed, you’ll have to grab it manually.
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