Firefox Catches Up With IE

Firefox has been adding new features in an effort to match IE; now, the browser is catching up in a more unfortunate way -- with vulnerabilities. Our own security guru Russ Cooper recently reported in his weekly Security Watch newsletter (sign up here) that the Web is awash with code that can attack Firefox and its Mozilla brethren. There are two fixes: patches and disabling International Domain Name (IDN) support.

For the two decades I’ve covered them, Microsoft has taken its public relations (PR) very seriously. It now has a veritable PR factory in the form of Waggener Edstrom, which has 600 employees, most of whom I’d guess are devoted to Microsoft.

But that doesn’t mean Microsoft is entirely open. PR people can block the press just as much as they can open doors. Lately, in the name of message discipline, there has been a whole lot of blocking going on. But that could be changing, Microsoft may be returning somewhat to its old free-wheeling days when execs were more accessible and said what they thought. According to one journalist who covers marketing and B2B publishing, Redmond is making a concerted effort to open up. I, for one, hope they stick with it.