IE7 Beta 2 gets hacker-tested

Microsoft is making a concentrated effort to change its relationship with the hacking community, including getting help from hackers on new software applications. The Beta 2 version of Internet Explorer 7 was presented at the Hack in the Box Security Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with Microsoft looking for feedback on how to improve it. According to Tony Chor, the Internet Explorer team's group program manager, "It's the first time we've ever come out ahead of a product release to present and get feedback."

Microsoft is hoping to change its relationship with hackers--or, as it likes to call them, the "security research community"--from adversarial to cooperative. Some applications developers, such as Mozilla's Firefox team, have had more success getting the security research community on their side to work with them as opposed to against them.

IE7 is expected to out by the end of this year.