Mozilla taps former Microsoft executive for security
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Mozilla Corp. has hired a former Microsoft Corp. security strategist to help lock down its open source products against online attacks.
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InfoWorld - Mozilla is working to fix a browser flaw that could give attackers unauthorized access to data on a victim's machine.
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Mozilla's Mike Shaver tells us how the redesign of Firefox's community site will better serve its web tinkerers. Wired News Q&A by Michael Calore.
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Mozilla has confirmed a vulnerability in its Firefox browser that could be used by attackers to scout out a system before they undertake a more aggressive assault.
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The update for the Mozilla browser fixes an unusual vulnerability that could cause malicious code to run if the browser is launched by Microsoft's IE.
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(InfoWorld) - With the release of its latest Firefox 2.0.0.5 browser, open-source software maker Mozilla claims to have fixed a number of potentially serious vulnerabilities in its flagship product. According to the firm's chief security officer, the company is working harder than ever to keep its users protected. Through the launch of Firefox 2.0.0.5 late on July 17, Mozilla moved to patch nine individual flaws resident in previous iterations of the program. Patches built into 2.0.0.5 included those meant to address multiple memory corruption bugs, a cross-site scripting vulnerability, and a flaw that could give attackers access to the browser's cache. Among the other problems the company addressed in the update was even an unusual vulnerability that could cause malicious code to run on a PC if the browser is launched using Microsoft's rival Internet Explorer software -- a flaw that Mozilla could have easily pinned on Microsoft, despite denials from the software maker that it is at all responsible for mending the issue. And while some security experts still maintain that open-source products are ill-fitted for use inside enterprise businesses as they may leave the door open to savvy attackers who can take advantage of the readily-available nature of the products' widely-published source code, Window Snyder, whose official title is "chief security something-or-other" at Mozilla, claims that the firm's very makeup has led Firefox and the vendor's other products to offer stronger protection for end-users than proprietary systems with which they compete. "Transparency has been one of the key factors to our success in improving security; some see doing development with the whole world watching as an obstacle, and at times it can be a challenge, but we see it as a unique strength," Snyder said. The security expert, herself a former employee of Microsoft, said that Mozilla currently enlists more than 10,000 people in regular security testing of its nightly product builds. Compared to a standard Web browser development team operating under one company's roof, the virtual legion of open-source contributors provides a far deeper pool of talent to try to assault its products to find any vulnerabilities, she said. Companies including Microsoft often point to the comparatively large numbers of bugs reported in Mozilla products by security researchers as an indicator that the technologies are less secure than their own. However, the volume of issues being uncovered in Firefox and other open-source products is actually an illustration of the high level of scrutiny such applications receive, which is more than their proprietary counterparts, Snyder maintains. Microsoft sends out a set of patches only once every month, but the virtual Firefox security testing team is helping Mozilla turnaround updates almost as quickly as it receives reports of any flaws, she said. Patching vulnerabilities as quickly as possible is a more effective approach to thwarting attacks as hackers often have longer periods of time to craft assaults on proprietary systems before they are fixed, according to the expert. Mozilla has also added real-time vulnerability updates for its users in the past year, easing the burden on people to stay abreast of any fixes on their own. "This community approach is the reason we're able to ship patches so quickly. It's more important to communicate with people and let them know what is going on versus waiting and sitting on the information," said Snyder. "If people start looking at the amount of time it takes for companies to get updates out as the best measurement of overall security versus the number of problems that may be identified, more people are going to change their minds about whether open source is indeed the most secure model." Questioned as to whether it becomes a challenge to respond to 10,000 independent security contributors helping in the review of its programs, Snyder said that an unofficial hierarchy has created itself among the people who regularly make helpful suggestions to Mozilla. "It's a challenge and an opportunity trying to do development with that many different voices, and often the most adamant people make significant contributions, but people also make points and build a consensus and ideas bubble up through the group that way," she said. "Even if it makes for more work, we think it's always better to listen to the voices of many than it is to limit the process to only a few."
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InfoWorld - Window Snyder, chief security officer at open source browser maker Mozilla, is caught in the crosshairs of the raging browser vulnerability battle.
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Microsoft has tapped a former executive at Walt Disney to fill its CIO position, a move that shows the company continuing to fill top executive positions from outside the company.
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In an interview this morning from Buenos Aires with BetaNews, Core Security Chief Technology Officer IvÃÂ¡n Arce described a scenario whereby a malicious user could be able to trigger AOL's Instant Messenger into launching Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 Web browser, and then send it commands that enable that user to wrest full remote control of the AIM user's system.
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Mozilla is starting to pose a threat to Microsoftâs Internet Explorer after years of being the darling of a strange mix of AOL enthusiasts and techies.
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Microsoft has tapped a former executive at Walt Disney to fill its CIO position, a move that shows the company continuing to fill top executive positions from outside the company.Tony Scott, who most recently was CIO at Walt Disney, will take over that same role at Microsoft in February, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. Scott, who also will be a corporate vice president at Microsoft, replaces Stuart Scott, who&#160;departed the company in November. The two are not related.Scott will manage Microsoft&#39;s 4,000-person IT organization, which is responsible for all of the technology systems supporting the company&#39;s worldwide sales, marketing, and services operations, as well as the enterprise systems and applications for all corporate processes.At Disney, where he was senior vice president in addition to CIO, Scott was the first CIO to manage the entire company&#39;s IT systems, according to Microsoft. Prior to Disney, Scott was CTO at General Motors and vice president of operations at Bristol-Meyers Squibb.There are a lot of new faces in the ranks of upper management at Microsoft, with a rash of them signing on to the company in the last six months. Just last week Microsoft revealed that company veteran Jeff Raikes, president of its Business Division, will&#160;leave the company in September. The company tapped an outside executive -- former Juniper Networks, Macromedia, and Adobe executive Stephen Elop -- to fill that role.Other new hires to the company since last July include: Dan Reed, Microsoft Research director of scalable and multicore computing in November; Robert Youngjohns, president of North American sales and marketing and corporate vice president in November; Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group in August; and Don Mattick, senior vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business in July.There is likely more new blood to come as Microsoft also confirmed last week several other executive departures: Bruce Jaffe, corporate vice president of corporate development; Charles Fitzgerald, Microsoft&#39;s general manager of platform strategy; and&#160;Rob Short, corporate vice president of the Windows Core Technology group.Apart from CEO Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft&#39;s entertainment and devices division, many of the company&#39;s other top executives have joined the company in the past three years. They include the man widely seen as Gates&#39; successor, Chief Architect Ray Ozzie, who joined Microsoft in 2005. Kevin Turner, Microsoft&#39;s chief operating officer, and Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of Microsoft&#39;s Online Services Group, also joined the company that year.
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He said his company&#39;s Windows XP operating system update, launched last month by Bill Gates, was the &quot;first big line we have drawn in the sand&quot; to combat security breaches and spam.
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TechWeb - Just days after the Mozilla Foundation released the final version of its standalone Firefox browser, a security firm Thursday said that earlier editions should be replaced.
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John Musarra, a long-time Mozilla fan, is getting ready to help launch the forthcoming release of the Firefox 1.0 browser the old-fashioned way: by throwing a party.
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Mozilla should soon be experimenting with some novel user-interface technologies for its browser and other products, according to a UI developer that&#160;joined Mozilla this week from startup company Humanized.Aza Raskin, who until Wednesday was president of Humanized, a five-person startup in Chicago, is now user experience lead for the Mozilla Labs team, he said Thursday. He will be working on technology to let people &quot;do anything you want to do, anywhere, anytime on your computer,&quot; he said.Mozilla announced Wednesday that it had hired three of the principals from Humanized, which is known for its innovative work with the Enso project to create more intuitive user interfaces. Mozilla did not identify the people it hired, and Raskin was hesitant at first to say which of his colleagues had joined him at Mozilla. Eventually he acknowledged that Humanized&#39;s Jono DiCarlo and Atul Varma also have joined the company known for its Firefox browser.Enso user-interface software was designed to make it easier to perform daily tasks that require the use of multiple applications or functions. The software runs in the background and allows users to type in simple commands to access applications, instead of leaving the window or application they are in to use another one.For example, if a user wants to open Firefox from the current screen, instead of having to find the Firefox icon or go to the Start menu in Windows, Firefox can be opened by pressing the Caps Lock key and typing &quot;open firefox.&quot; Performing calculations and acquiring word definitions can be executed in a similar way from whichever window the user is in at the time.&quot;Those ideas need to be explored at Mozilla,&quot; Raskin said, though &quot;it&#39;s unclear yet what form that will take.&quot;He and his Humanized colleagues were attracted to Mozilla because the company &quot;has a lot of vision&quot; to extend the Web beyond the browser, he said. The Firefox browser remains the company&#39;s primary product for now, however, although it also offers the Thunderbird open-source e-mail client.Raskin said that many advances on the Web, in terms of online services and mashups, have been designed with the developer in mind, and because of that they run the risk of making the browser a mere delivery vehicle for streaming applications -- much like what the desktop has become. He aims to use technology and ideas from the Enso project to add more human interaction not just to the browser, but to anything people do on the Web itself.&quot;I want the power of mashups not in the hands of the developer but in the hands of end-users -- in the hands of your grandmothers and your teen-aged son,&quot; he said. &quot;So you really can be writing an e-mail and say, &#39;Now I want a map in there.&#39; Things like that -- a place where you can actually start having a conversation with your computer.&quot;Raskin said that most people, whether they know it or not, are captive to their computer -- they do their work on it or use it only in the way the computer allows, and have very little control over that interaction. The idea behind Humanized, and now the work Raskin and his colleagues will do at Mozilla, is to change that for everyone, not just people who know their way around a computer.Mozilla did not actually acquire Humanized, and Raskin said its Web site will be up for some time, but the company is effectively now part of Mozilla. He and his colleagues are working out which pieces of the Enso project will be relevant to their work at Mozilla, he said. Raskin posted on his blog about his new position.Of the remaining Humanized employees -- systems architect Scott Robbin and Treasurer Andrew Wilson -- only Robbin&#39;s next move is clear for now. Raskin said Robbin is running the company&#39;s music-search-engine project, Songza.&#160;
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Mozilla Corp., which oversees development of the popular Firefox Web browser, has promoted John Lilly to chief executive officer. Lilly took on the new job Monday after serving as Mozilla's chief operating officer since August 2006.
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Friends of friends XenSource, the server virtualization company, has added a second former Microsoft staffer to its management ranks, recruiting the exec responsible for leading a number of big Windows products.â¦