Secure Computers With Internet Explorer 7’s Security Zones

Malicious active content on the Internet has always been a cause for concern for the IT professional. The Security Zones feature of Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is designed to protect users from inadvertently downloading this type of content from the Internet.

IE7 includes four predefined Security Zones:

• Internet: The Internet zone is an all-inclusive zone designed to include all Web sites on the Internet.
• Local Intranet: The Local Intranet zone is designed to include all computers that are connected to a local network.
• Trusted Sites: The Trusted Sites zone can be configured to include any sites containing active content that you completely trust.
• Restricted Sites: The Restricted Sites zone can be configured to include any sites containing active content that you absolutely do not trust.

There is actually a hidden, fifth zone, the My Computer zone, which includes most of the files on your computer. This special zone doesn’t appear in the dialog box with the others and can only be reconfigured by editing the registry or by using the Internet Explorer Administration Kit. As a general rule, the default security level in the My Computer zone is sufficient for most situations.

Each of these Security Zones is by default configured to use one of four predefined security levels. For example, the Restricted Sites zone is set at High, the Internet zone is set at Medium-high, the Local Intranet zone is set at Medium-low, and the Trusted Sites zone is set at Medium.

In most circumstances, these default Security Zone settings are sufficient, but you do have a lot of latitude — possibly more than you’re comfortable with. IE7’s Security Zone feature is highly customizable and gives you a mechanism for adjusting the amount of security in each of the Security Zones at a granular level. In other words, you can configure each and every active content feature that IE7 is capable of processing by choosing to enable or disable the feature and configuring Internet Explorer to prompt the user for a choice before accessing the active feature.

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