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Vista more secure than Mac OS X

M

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At least that's what Dino Dai Zovi says in an article posted by Macworld today: Contest winner: Vista more secure than Mac OS:

Dino Dai Zovi, the New York-based security researcher who took home $10,000 in a highly-publicized MacBook Pro hijack on April 20, has been at the center of a week’s worth of controversy about the security of Apple’s operating system. In an e-mail interview with Computerworld, Dai Zovi talked about how finding vulnerabilities is like fishing, the chances that someone else will stumble on the still-unpatched bug, and what operating system — Windows Vista or Mac OS X — is the sturdiest when it comes to security.

Please note that the article, originally posted by ComputerWorld, was reprinted by MacWorld.
 
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hmmm...


Interesting article. But I still don't think Mac OSx is as vulnerable to the point that we should be running scared (Coming from a new Switcher!) And no matter what, even if it comes to the point that Macs are getting to be vulnerable, they are still way ahead of the game in stability. And windows can't touch that no matter what.
 
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The thing is, Windows is a heck of alot more mainstream. You probably have 1000 people trying to break Windows Vista to every 1 person trying to break OSX. Thats what it boils down to.

The people out to spoil your day know that the majority of people use Windows, so they will target that.
 
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its cos not as many ppl r using vista at this very moment compared to os x. because bussinesses (microsofts main customers) take a while to switch.

so it will we wont worry about that lol....
 
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One reason Vista is supposedly secure is that any time you want to do just about anything at all (install, run programs, move files, delete files, open ZIP files) it asks you for confirmation. I was trying to delete some files the other day, and every time i pressed delete I had to confirm twice that I really wanted to do it.

After not long at all I turned this "feature" off. I suspect most others will too.

There's also the issue that very quickly you get use to clicking "Yes" to anything which pops up on screen, so when something appears saying "Are you sure you want to reformat your hard drive?" you click Yes almost as a reflex action. I'm not really convinced this represents state-of-the-art security.
 
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Using the airline analogy:
You enter a good looking terminal with the largest planes you have ever seen. Every 10 feet a security officer appears and asks you if you are "sure" you want to continue walking to your plane and if you would like to cancel. Not sure what cancel would do, you continue walking and ask the agent at the desk why the planes are so big. After the security officer making sure you want to ask the question and you want to hear the answer, the agent replies that they are bigger because it makes customers feel better, but the planes are designed to fly twice as slow. Adding the size helped achieve the slow fly goal.

Once on the plane, every passenger has to be asked individually by the flight attendants if they are sure they want to take this flight. Then it is company policy that the captain asks the passengers collectively the same thing. After answering yes to so many questions, you are punched in the face by some stranger who when he asked "Are you sure you want me to punch you in the face? Cancel or Allow?" you instinctively say "Allow".

After takeoff, the pilots realize that the landing gear driver wasn't updated to work with the new plane. Therefore it is always stuck in the down position. This forces the plane to fly even slower, but the pilots are used to it and continue to fly the planes, hoping that soon the landing gear manufacturer will give out a landing gear driver update.

You arrive at your destination wishing you had used your reward miles with XP airlines rather than trying out this new carrier. A close friend, after hearing your story, mentions that Linux Air is a much better alternative and helps.

It really is a lot like this.
 
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Part of the problem with a statement like that is that rating security is subjective. Is an ActiveX security problem in IE equal to a buffer overflow error in QuickTime? Do 5 significant security issues equal 1 critical issue? How about 10? It takes me 20 minutes to retrieve your password in one OS, and 10 in the other: which is better?

And people are going to be biased in one way or another regardless (personal preference, pressure/engagement from OS developers, etc) of how much they try and remain neutral, so you always need to try and assess what all the data says and try to avoid being sucked in by media hype and dramatization.
 
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One reason Vista is supposedly secure is that any time you want to do just about anything at all (install, run programs, move files, delete files, open ZIP files) it asks you for confirmation. I was trying to delete some files the other day, and every time i pressed delete I had to confirm twice that I really wanted to do it.

After not long at all I turned this "feature" off. I suspect most others will too.

There's also the issue that very quickly you get use to clicking "Yes" to anything which pops up on screen, so when something appears saying "Are you sure you want to reformat your hard drive?" you click Yes almost as a reflex action. I'm not really convinced this represents state-of-the-art security.

I agree with Thermidor - granting access will either become a reflex action or they will turn if off - either of which puts them right back into harms way.
 
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Vista is more secure against external threats? Yeah, sure, maybe....but who protects users from MicroSoft?
 
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The thing is, Windows is a heck of alot more mainstream. You probably have 1000 people trying to break Windows Vista to every 1 person trying to break OSX. Thats what it boils down to.

The people out to spoil your day know that the majority of people use Windows, so they will target that.

This contest proved that even with an incentive of $12000 (converting the laptop into money), even with 2 days of full work, even with extra help (the rules were bended at the end), even with the help of everyone (contest were allowed to ask for external help, even with all this things OSX proved to be fairly safe, even more, this was a problem with Safari, not OSX. This goes against the idea of safety by obscurity.

There is also another detail that makes OSX indirectly safer than Windows, and that is the behavior of Apple against a problem compared to Microsoft's approach. Consider that Windows Vista, after 6 years of development, still has some security problems that are present in XP. Check the story behind Sasser to see how long can it take to MS to find a solution to a problem.

Finally there is the idea of how deep a security problem can be. Who would you call healthier, someone who had a couple of colds during the year or someone who "only" had cancer? There have been several problems related to Tiger's security within its year of live, but no real treats, no treats in the wild, no critical treats or proof of concept. Vista is months old and already has its own worms and viruses, it is true there have been more reports for OSX than for Vista, but those have been far more serious than those for Tiger.
 
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Windows XP was pretty secure and robust when it was first released. Let's return to Vista's security and "rock solid stability" in two or three years' time.
 
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The thing is, Windows is a heck of alot more mainstream. You probably have 1000 people trying to break Windows Vista to every 1 person trying to break OSX. Thats what it boils down to.

I've never understood that though. If all 1000 released something malicious each for XP, they would just disappear into the the mire of Windows viruses.

If one person can release something truly destructive for OS X, they'd be infamous.

So now Vista might possibly be in a similar boat to OS X. If both OS X and Vista can be about as secure as each other, everyone's a winner, and Microsoft should be congratulated for eventually getting their act together.

On the other hand, I'd be more inclined to think they'd done a good job if if all went on in the background. Continous prompts and gimmicky add-ons like Windows Defender might do the job, but in a very clumsy way at the expense of useability.
 
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I've never understood that though. If all 1000 released something malicious each for XP, they would just disappear into the the mire of Windows viruses.

That would actually work to their advantage. Anyone writing a virus has something they are trying to achieve, whether it's a bot-network for hacking, DDoS, or spamming. Being so noticeable as to be known by name won't serve that purpose, as more publicity to their exploit will just make it close that much quicker. What they want is to use some unknown or quiet exploit that will do the job for them.

Having 100x or 1000x the number of Windows systems out there means that they have that many more systems that are problem unpatched, and will be accessible for their dirty work.
 
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Bottom line is I'm running a Mac right now and I'm not worrying about any attacks. That's all that matters, doesn't it.
 
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One could be worried that because of Mac raving on about their immunity to viruses and such, that some virus programmer might feel challenged to create a virus just for OSX, become famous for it, and ruin Apple's credibility.
Perhaps Apple gloating about it's immunity will be its downfall?

Just a thought.
 
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One could be worried that because of Mac raving on about their immunity to viruses and such, that some virus programmer might feel challenged to create a virus just for OSX, become famous for it, and ruin Apple's credibility.
Perhaps Apple gloating about it's immunity will be its downfall?

Just a thought.

Certainly, but when you have a spammer offering you cash to write a virus that will allow him to send out his millions of emails, I think gloating will take a back seat.

"Hey, look I wrote a Mac virus!"
"That's great. Look I just bought my second Escalade."
 
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One could be worried that because of Mac raving on about their immunity to viruses and such, that some virus programmer might feel challenged to create a virus just for OSX, become famous for it, and ruin Apple's credibility.
Perhaps Apple gloating about it's immunity will be its downfall?

Just a thought.

If OSX is even half as secure as Apple and Mac owners like to think, then it won't be a problem. That virus programmer might just give up.
 
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That would actually work to their advantage. Anyone writing a virus has something they are trying to achieve, whether it's a bot-network for hacking, DDoS, or spamming. Being so noticeable as to be known by name won't serve that purpose, as more publicity to their exploit will just make it close that much quicker.

You're right in that these people have different purposes, and in a way adware and browser hijacks are the most destructive for the average user. Since it's unscrupulous companies that deal with these, and the commercial factor is the priority, going after the biggest market share is what you would do. I expect these crooks have teams of people hacking away.

The lone virus writer doesn't want to release something into the wild and never hear about it though. What would be the point?
 
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A greener Apple.

hmmm...
 
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Care to expand?
 

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