Software giant Microsoft has suffered a serious leak after the second beta-test version of Internet Explorer 7 ended up on the Internet together with its source codes. Despite the fact that Microsoft was quick to force the Web site to remove the link from its pages, statistics show that it was downloaded 12,000 times from one resource alone.
The second beta-test version of Internet Explorer 7 appeared at JCXP.net, where it was possible not only to download a version of the browser but the source codes of the long-awaited Microsoft release as an 11MB file in .rar format.
The news of the leak spread so quickly throughout the Internet that the program, with screenshots and source codes, was present on several dozen sites at one point. Microsoft was quick to react to the situation, forcing JCXP.net to at least remove the Internet Explorer 7 codes. However, later statistics revealed rather alarming figures: the source code was copied at least 12,000 times, classifying the incident as a huge leak. And even if the leak of a new version of a product can occasionally be described as planned, such a wide distribution of the source codes is obviously a major oversight by the IT security people at Microsoft.
The software giant has called on users to wait for the official release of the seventh version of the browser, which should take place this year, and not to use the unofficial beta-test version.
“Of course, Microsoft is an enormous company and monitoring all the confidential information moving about within its boundaries is very difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible. It just needs to be set as a goal. However, to all appearances, Microsoft is in no hurry to plug all those leaks. Sensitive data and intellectual property seems to flow from the company with enviable regularity," points out Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
The latest incident is just one in a long list of major leaks from Microsoft. The general public has already seen the confidential internal correspondences of the highest-level executive staff and the source codes of other products such as alpha- and beta-versions still at the test stage. Listed below are a few of the main incidents from recent years.
In November 2005 mail belonging to Bill Gates and Microsoft's chief technical officer Ray Ozzie found their way on to the World Wide Web. Mail from Oct. 30, 2005 was even published in the Financial Times. As a result, the whole world found out about the corporation's strategic failures over the last few years and its plans for the future. In February 2005 the source codes of Windows NT and Windows 2000 appeared on the Internet. Even Microsoft admitted that there had been a leak, a rarity in such cases. In March 2003 another leak of a version of Windows Longhorn (the new name for Windows Vista) was downloaded and installed by a huge number of users. It resulted in the mass media describing a whole range of functions of the new system 3 years ahead of its release. Without a doubt it gave a head start to competitors who could add the same functions to their products. In February 2002 an unofficial version of the Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1Р’ browser appeared on the Internet. In November 2001 messages sent between the vice-president of the division of Microsoft responsible for Windows, Brian Valentine, and the marketing and sales department appeared on the Internet. They revealed that Microsoft was particularly worried about the threat posed by Linux.