Therefore, it should be possible to implement user authentication and strong encryption of all browsing data and thereby mitigate or even remove the majority of the security threats mentioned above. There is still limited activity in this direction, however, compared to the dimension of the issue and the size of the affected population of end users. The few known initiatives for securing Internet browsers are not sponsored by global software multinationals, but by smaller companies with focused expertise aimed at occupying a specialized niche in the security market. Part of the reason for Microsoft!s disinclination to include local security measures into Internet Explorer 7.0 may lie in the strong www.insecuremag.com
coupling of its software to the PC operating system and to the application environment and its components, which still suffer from equally damaging security vulnerabilities. On the other hand, the general availability of encryption tools for protecting Internet surfing data may fuel fears of misuse and hinder the work of law enforcement officials against criminals and terrorists. A recent initiative from Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Sch채uble may help shed some light on the potential relevance of this concern. The ministry is advocating for the development of means to secretly install government Trojans (loaded with so-called "Remote Forensic Software") onto the computers of crime suspects. 67