Mac OSX not much safer than windows

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Hahahaha I laughed my ass off when I read this, so much for macs being so "superior" to windows, this just confirms that Msoft is no worse than other companies, they just get piled on because they are the biggest target...

Friday 25 June 2004
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Security statistics show surprising finds

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The Micorsoft Windows application is more secure than you think, and Mac OS X is worse than you ever imagined. That is according to statistics published for the first time this week by Danish security firm Secunia.

The statistics, based on a database of security advisories for more than 3,500 products during 2003 and 2004 sheds light on the real security of enterprise applications and operating systems. Each product is broken down into pie charts demonstrating how many, what type and how significant security holes have been in each.

The figures have shown is that OS X's reputation as a relatively secure operating system is unwarranted, Secunia said.

This year and last year Secunia tallied 36 advisories on security issues with the software, many of them allowing attackers to remotely take over the system - comparable to figures on operating systems such as Windows XP Professional and Red Hat Enterprise Server.

"Secunia is now displaying security statistics that will open many eyes, and for some it might be very disturbing news," said Secunia chief executive Niels Henrik Rasmussen. "The myth that Mac OS X is secure, for example, has been exposed."


For example, Windows security holes generally receive a lot of press because of the software's popularity, but the statistics show that Windows is not the subject of significantly more advisories than other operating systems. Windows XP Professional saw 46 advisories in 2003-2004, with 48% of vulnerabilities allowing remote attacks and 46% enabling system access, Secunia said.

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8 had 48 advisories in the same period, with 58% of the holes exploitable remotely and 37% enabling system access. Red Hat's Advanced Server 3 had 50 advisories in the same period - despite the fact that counting only began in November of last year. Sixty-six percent of the vulnerabilities were remotely exploitable, with 25% granting system access.

Mac OS X does not stand out as particularly more secure than the competition, according to Secunia.

Of the 36 advisories issued in 2003-2004, 61% could be exploited across the internet and 32% enabled attackers to take over the system.

The proportion of critical bugs was also comparable with other software - 33% of the OS X vulnerabilities were "highly" or "extremely" critical by Secunia's reckoning, compared with 30% for XP Professional and 27% for SLES 8 and just 12% for Advanced Server 3. OS X had the highest proportion of "extremely critical" bugs at 19%.
Xp home: http://secunia.com/product/16/
Xp Pro: http://secunia.com/product/22/
OSX: http://secunia.com/product/96/
 
FUD. Utter FUD.

There has only been one critical OS X security flaw, and that was the Help URL issue (to summarize, someone could use Help Center's interweaving with HTML to launch a script on a disk image and exploit the system). Yes, that was one vulnerability (not an exploit, a vulnerability), but Apple fixed it within a week or two, and no exploits were reported.

I have no virus scanning software whatsoever. In fact, if you go into any Mac forum and ask what virus scanning software to buy (or spyware or anything of the sort), people will tell you to not bother wasting your money. I don't even have a firewall setup, and I'm still fine. I converse with thousands of other Mac users over at various forums, and over the years I have not known one, not a single person who was hit by a bug, virus, spyware, adware, worm, or security exploit. Ever.

So what you want, but I know that when I use OS X, I'm safe. You might also want to take a look at this.
 
Sage
FUD. Utter FUD.

There has only been one critical OS X security flaw, and that was the Help URL issue (to summarize, someone could use Help Center's interweaving with HTML to launch a script on a disk image and exploit the system). Yes, that was one vulnerability (not an exploit, a vulnerability), but Apple fixed it within a week or two, and no exploits were reported.

I have no virus scanning software whatsoever. In fact, if you go into any Mac forum and ask what virus scanning software to buy (or spyware or anything of the sort), people will tell you to not bother wasting your money. I don't even have a firewall setup, and I'm still fine. I converse with thousands of other Mac users over at various forums, and over the years I have not known one, not a single person who was hit by a bug, virus, spyware, adware, worm, or security exploit. Ever.

So what you want, but I know that when I use OS X, I'm safe. You might also want to take a look at this.
I suppose microsoft paid off that company to make mac look bad right? :rolleyes: Its a study published by an independant security firm. As I said they are the bigest target and hated by everybody so naturally they are the subject of the most scrutiny and criticism. Just like presidents, no one gives a crap about you when your just some normal guy, but once you become the top guy, the president in this case, everyone does every thing they can to dig up crap on you. I don't care how many holes it has etc. It does what I want it to do and thats all I care. As long as I can surf the web and play my games I don't give a crap about all this anti microsoft crap.
 
http://secunia.com/product/96/ go to where it says Advisories: there are quite a few vulnerabilities listed, I'm not convinced its more secure, I'm just convinced that they do a better job of hiding their facts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that microsoft is any better or the best thign on the face of the planet, they need to get their act together aswell, I'm just saying that all these other people should stop all of this superiority crap when their product Isn't much better. If you like your OS, fine, but there is no reason to try and make other people feel dumb because they use an "inferior" OS.
 
actually every OS is PACKED with bugs and security holes. The only reason for windows being hit by all forms of attacks is because it's the most widely used operating system out there. For that very reason, hackers focus their attention on compromising windows - the documentation is there and almost everyone has it. If every computer user all of a sudden decided to switch to OSX or Linux, then all the hackers will focus their attention on OSX and Linux.
 
emad
actually every OS is PACKED with bugs and security holes. The only reason for windows being hit by all forms of attacks is because it's the most widely used operating system out there. For that very reason, hackers focus their attention on compromising windows - the documentation is there and almost everyone has it. If every computer user all of a sudden decided to switch to OSX or Linux, then all the hackers will focus their attention on OSX and Linux.
Exactly what I'm saying. 👍
 
The fact that very few people bother to hack Linux is one of the primary reasons I use Linux so much...well, that and the amount of control I get over my computer. Similarly, my parents own 2 macs at their office because they're better for graphic arts - but then again, they've also got a linux fileserver, a Windows graphics box, and several print servers using proprietary OS'es.

The best operating system is always the one that does what you need it to with minimal headaches. For that reason, I have different PC's running different OS'es (I still prefer working in a linux environment).

the lack of a hacker community for Linux and OSX is one of the primary reasons I'll continue to use these 2 OS'es for securing my network. Hell, I can bet that the routers that most of you have are running a toned down version of Linux or beOS
 
emad
actually every OS is PACKED with bugs and security holes. The only reason for windows being hit by all forms of attacks is because it's the most widely used operating system out there. For that very reason, hackers focus their attention on compromising windows - the documentation is there and almost everyone has it. If every computer user all of a sudden decided to switch to OSX or Linux, then all the hackers will focus their attention on OSX and Linux.
👍

And it's also the same for the stability of Mac vs PC. There are like thousands upon thousands more programs created for a PC than the are for Macs.

Even so, I personally haven't had any problems recently on any of our 8 computers, other than the MSBlast getting spread over the network. :dunce:
 
skylineGTR_guy
I've never been affected by any of thoe bugs spreading through the internet.
That's because they've all been designed for Windows. I've only ever heard of one Mac-exclusive worm/bug/virus written.
 
I've never had problems with my PC, other than the MSBlaster, spyware and that's about it. Nonetheless, I always have ZoneAlarm Pro running.
 
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