Clipboard Data Theft Now Optional With IE7

An anonymous reader writes "It's been known for a long time that Internet Explorer will happily allow any Web site to steal data that users have recently cut-and-pasted or copied into the Windows 'clipboard' data storage area. Well, now it looks like Microsoft has finally decided that this 'feature' was probably ill-advised, according to The Washington Post's Security Fix blog. IE7 throws up a warning asking whether users really want to let a site filch their clipboard data (Firefox, Opera and most other non-IE browsers forbid this behavior by default)."

Comments

Re:Features vs. Security

[Tim C]

Microsoft (and other software companies, but MS gets the most attention for it) spent years working under the paradigm where making things more convenient and/or more powerful for the user was the most important thing you could do to get people to use and buy your product.

Don't forget that that includes UNIX; from the preface to O'Reilly's "Practical Unix and Internet Security":

When the first version of this book appeared in 1991, many people thought that the words "UNIX security" were an oxymoron-two words that appeared to contradict each other, much like the words "jumbo shrimp" or "Congressional action." After all, the ease with which a UNIX guru could break into a system, seize control, and wreak havoc was legendary in the computer community. Some people couldn't even imagine that a computer running UNIX could be made secure.

The various flavours of UNIX have come a long, long way since 1991. So have MS; but they have had farther to go, started later and have not been travelling nearly as fast. A modern Windows PC in skilled/sensible hands is safe enough, but so many are in less than optimal hands...