Someone on the IE security team forwarded me a document that had additional details. So here, for your enjoyment, is a chart listing the default settings for each security level. To answer the newsgroup poster, "medium" and "medium-high" aren't the same.

About the formatting: to get it to fit within the width of the blog's text section, I've made some abbreviations.

In a few cases, the table shows a number rather than D or E or P; below the table is a description of each such entry.

At the very bottom of this post I've included the settings from the privacy tab, too.

Note: these settings reflect those for Internet Explorer 7 on Vista SP1. Please see the MDSN link above for differences between IE 6 and IE 7.

.NET Framework

.NET Framework-reliant components

     1 = High safety

ActiveX controls and plug-ins

Downloads

Enable .NET Framework setup

Miscellaneous

     1 = Prohibit downloads from software update channels
     2 = Cache content downloaded from software update channels
     3 = Automatically install software updates

Scripting

User authentication

     1 = Prompt the user for name and password
     2 = Automatic logon only in intranet zone
     3 = Automatic logon with current user name and password

Privacy settings (on the "Privacy" tab)

1. I don't trust Google.
2. I don't trust the Internet.
3. The tools for creating private documents are so much better than the online ones.
4. I can get to my documents when I am offline.
5. The Internet is too slow.

• Security and stability
• Offline application mode
• Fast running and standards based application engine

Fourth US airline to go Wi-Fi: Aircell says they have a fourth airline--after American, Delta, and Virgin America--on board for its in-flight Wi-Fi service. The aerial broadband provider's latest partner will be announced soon. Aircell's service went live in 15 American Airlines planes two weeks ago, and there's been a surprising lack of reporting from regular travelers or journalists since the big splash at the launch.

Microsoft, two universities research methods for better Wi-Fi handoff for vehicles: The researchers developed a method they call Vi-Fi, writes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop, which allows a system to maintain connections with several base stations at once, using a primary access point for traffic until a discontinuity is predicted or encountered. This allows seamless handoffs and continuous voice conversations.

Speaking of autos and Wi-Fi, concerns raised about Chrysler's in-car Wi-Fi option: Randall Stross wrote nearly two weeks ago in The New York Times about the problem of distraction. With the Internet at your fingertips, can you restrain yourself? The only problem with the humorous and accurate analysis is that millions of business travelers have 3G access via laptop cards already, so you'd think we'd already be seeing the bad effects of automotive area networks.

A Wi-Fi booster can't post availability signs on highway: The Nebraska town of Louisville has free Wi-Fi downtown, and wanted to post "Visitor Wi-Fi" on a highway sign as another amenity. The state highway department has a policy that doesn't allow the promotion of Wi-Fi, because they believe they'd be inundated. A resident who runs a local Internet firm installed his own signs on the highway; the roads department removed them; he remounted them; they were removed again. The idea of zoning and mounting a billboard apparently hasn't come to the city officials' minds (or perhaps they're prohibited).

The folks spreading misinformation about Wi-Fi health effects cause Ulster school to disable network: I can understand why non-technical folks might think that Wi-Fi has been proven to be unsafe, given the kind of information that's available on the Internet about wireless safety. While there are ongoing studies about the safety of cellular signals--and I'm convinced at this point there's no increased risk to an adult's health by using a cell phone--there is no specific and credible research linked to Wi-Fi, which broadcasts signals at a far lower level than a cell phone, most of the time in most uses.

Washington state shuts down rest-area Wi-Fi: The $3 for 15 minutes, $7 per day, or $30 per month Wi-Fi service at 28 of Washington's 42 rest areas has been turned off after a year for lack of use. Figures. The fees charged by Parsons and Road Connect aren't unreasonable for a nationally scoped plan, but are ridiculous for limited use. States should either bite the bullet and offer these service for free, partner with national roaming operators who can resell service into large networks of business travelers, or use ads to support the service. Highways in remote areas can typically pick up cell data networks, and ongoing costs should be minimal to operate such networks.

IEEE approves fast-roaming standard, 802.11r: This new standard is designed to improve the handoff of devices between base stations. This is accomplished in part by allowing base stations to communicate security and quality of service information so that a VoIP over WLAN phone can immediately reassociate without the delay of authentication and other handshaking.

Denver airport sees 7,000 connections on a single day last week due to Democratic National Convention: FreeFi released the usage figures recently to show how their service is operating. The network started with about 600 daily users when the switchover from fee to free happened 10 months ago, and now carries about 3,500 daily connections.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf goes free: The chain of about 700 cafes will have free Wi-Fi installed by now in all its company-owned stores (about 300).

From Secunia:

Description:
Some vulnerabilities and a security issue have been reported in Apple Safari, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose sensitive information or to compromise a user’s system.

1) A boundary error within the handling of BMP and GIF images can be exploited to trigger an out-of-bounds read and disclose content in memory.

2) A security issue exists due to Safari automatically launching downloaded executable files from sites in a Internet Explorer 7 zone with the “Launching applications and unsafe files” option set to “Enable”, or sites in the Internet Explorer 6 “Local intranet” or “Trusted sites” zone.

3) An unspecified error in the handling of Javascript arrays can be exploited to cause a memory corruption when a user visits a specially crafted web page.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may allow execution of arbitrary code.

The vulnerabilities are reported in Safari for Windows prior to version 3.1.2.

If you’re running it patch ‘er up. Or conversely you could just bite the bullet and get a Mac. (right, and use Firefox with NoScript. thx folks)

Article Link

Call me easily impressible, call me naive, darn, call me "out of touch with current security issues," but this book struck a major, major chord with me. It really did.

Now, I have experienced as much poor quality and insecure software as the next guy. I am never ever surprised about some feature in MS Office (or other application, really) just flat out not working or not working as expected or not working every time.

I suspect that, by now, every human on Earth who ever laid their hands on a computer knows:

software = might NOT work.

Now, we expect roads, bridges, toasters, chainsaws, bicycles, cars (until they put software in them...) to work and work they do. And if they don't - the company who manufactures them usually makes them work for us fast - or goes away, cut down by the "benevolent" axe of capitalism. Now, software is totally different (my thinking about this one).

And everybody knows it. But nobody was brave enough to take a hard look at this and analyze how that simple fact affected, affects and will affect our society. And, for my extra-paranoid readers: "... and how it might end that very society."

Until "Geekonomics!"

This book might not reveal any secrets about how software works to an IT professional (it will reveal how law works though!), but it will explain why bad software is everywhere, why we are stuck with it, why it will not improve by itself and - sorry for a hysterical note here! - how we might all fucking die because of it. It then unemotionally predicts why more people will certainly die because of bad software. It studies the complicated dynamics of today's software market such as who is more at fault for bad software - buyers who agree to buy or vendors who make it (or both). It also suggests that many of today's regulations and compliance "thingies" are a little misguided (e.g. in a battle a PCI DSS-compliant enterprise and a 0-day-wielding hacker, any sane person will bet on an 0-day). It is also very well-written; it won't bore an experienced IT  or security pro and it will not overwhelm a mere IT user.

First, it explains why the software is the "foundation of our civilization" today, and how it will be more so in the future. Next, it casts a look at "innovation" and ponders how innovation-driven software development relates to the  fact that users don't touch 90% of features of a typical software. In the third chapter is presents the view of the "0wned world" where "only the stupid [cybercriminals] get caught."  Next chapters looks at how government oversight works in other areas (e.g. FDA), how it might work - and how it might fail (and did fail in the past). While doing it, the book dispels the "government will just  make it worse" myth (basically, because some things are really bad and quickly streaming towards worse already). The amazing chapter 5 gives the clearest explanation of litigation (torts, etc) that I have ever seen (the book is worth reading just for chapter 5 alone!). Chapter 6 takes a super-pessimistic look at open-source software (no comment - just read it). Finally, several possible future - "the way forward" - is discussed.

Another thing I would like to mention about this book is that a reader should keep in mind that it is not about "insecure" software: it is about bad quality, unsafe software in general and less about "hackable" software. The author chose to not make this distinction very clear, perhaps on purpose.

So, everybody in software business, security business - in fact, just everybody who uses a computer - MUST READ THIS BOOK! Seriously, understanding the point made there might be a matter of life or death for some (all?) of us.

As a conclusion, if you want the visual image of the future to end my review, here it is: it is not "Terminator" future (where machines kill people out of evil) that we must fear and work to prevent, but "Robocop" future (where they do due to software bugs).

Go read the darn book!  And support liability for software manufactures. Also, in a few days, check this out (not yet but hover over the link to get a preview...)