Outpost Firewall PRO Protects IE Users with its Powerful Addition

St. Petersburg, Russia — April 19, 2005

Agnitum aims to complement its award-winning security product with a new set of browser enhancements.

In a bid to raise the level of privacy and security of the porous Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, Outpost’s sleek Browser Adjustment plug-in lets users dynamically modify IE’s scripting controls and content display properties related to the webpage they are viewing. Users of Internet Explorer can toggle between allowing and blocking potentially unnecessary elements that are integrated into the web pages they visit.

Internet Explorer has been plagued by numerous vulnerabilities throughout its existence. Before the Service Pack 2 (SP2) to Windows XP was introduced, security experts even had recommended switching to alternate browser because IE was simply too dangerous to be used without modifying its original security settings. The likes of Opera and Firefox started making rounds and by now they have captured a significant chunk of Microsoft’s browser market.

When citing Microsoft’s security lapses, experts often have referred to the way Internet Explorer treated small 3rd – party programming pieces called “scripts”: They are allowed to run unrestrictedly in the context of the browser. Malicious script writers and unscrupulous website operators were taking advantage of this situation and successfully exploited their visitors’ lax security settings to run hostile codes that compromised computers and gave rise to the epidemic of computer viruses spreading across the Net. Once having contracted those destructive scripts, the afflicted machines would become a breeding ground for spyware, viruses, Trojans and many other Internet scourges.

Despite the fact that the SP2 has brought about many security enhancements and browser improvements, its default configuration still allows for the execution of scripts contained on visited pages, which casts a shadow on Microsoft’s determination to protect the users of its browser.

Computer security experts offered a workaround to protect IE users by disabling scripting through the heightening of the Internet Zone’s level from “medium” to “high”. However, this manipulation might come at a cost whereby some benign sites that rely on scripting to properly display their contents won’t be able to do so due to those imposed restrictions.

That is where the Outpost’s new IE bar addition comes into play; it allows to alter the current page’s rendering properties “on-the-fly”, meaning that users of the Outpost Browser Adjustment plug-in can block the display of ads, images, inappropriate content and miscellaneous webpage “enhancements” in real time on the sites they visit. Plus, the plug-in offers to bar automatic scripts execution, browser cookie-file aggregation, referrer transitions and pop-ups display, providing Outpost users with rich personalization choices and balanced security stance.

“Outpost users would appreciate the flexibility of their Internet surfing experience as they can tune IE’s page to fit their individual taste and content tolerance. Navigating the Internet has never been safer and more relaxed thanks to the outstanding efforts to cut off on the redundant scripts and increased Web ads penetration. If you’ve decided to stick with IE, the browser security is never a given” – commented Mikhail Penkovsky, Agnitum Sales and Marketing Director in a post-release interview.

About Outpost Firewall Pro:
Outpost Firewall Pro (http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost) provides a superior arsenal of defense against PC infiltration by denying unauthorized access to remote hackers and protecting against data theft, denial-of-service attacks, privacy violation, Trojan horses, spyware and other malicious code. Outpost Firewall Pro is one of the most reliable firewalls for Windows, a fact that is proven by many independent reviews and millions of users around the world.
About Agnitum Ltd.:
Agnitum Ltd. (www.agnitum.com) is a software development company committed to delivering and supporting high quality security software products. Agnitum offers two headline products - Outpost Firewall PRO, securing personal and family desktops, and Outpost Office Firewall, ensuring a reliable endpoint protection and performance of the corporate network. Agnitum delivers computer security solutions to large enterprises, small and medium businesses, as well as home PC users.

For PR contacts you can reach Agnitum at pr@agnitum.com