Microsoft gets hacker feedback on IE7 Beta 2
Microsoft Corp. showed off the preliminary work it has done on the second beta version of its popular Internet Explorer, version 7, at the Hack in the Box Security Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and came away with some good feedback, managers at the company said Thursday.
"It's the first time we've ever come out ahead of a product release to present and get feedback," said Tony Chor, group program manager at Microsoft's Internet Explorer team, referring to the company's presentation to a hacker-specific group.
Chor, and colleague Andrew Cushman, director of Microsoft's security engineering and communication group, spoke highly of the feedback they heard at the presentation, and preferred the term "security research community" for attendees, instead of "hacker."
"Hacker has a negative connotation, like a criminal," said Cushman. People such as attendees of the Hack in the Box conference approach security from a very different, very valuable perspective, he added.
"This community is a good source of information and we haven't availed ourselves of that source," said Cushman.
Chor went a step further, saying Microsoft has maintained an "adversarial" relationship with the hacking community in the past, but "that wasn't working. It just made them mad and we didn't benefit from their passion and expertise."
