"Though this does not necessarily mean that Apple's software is the most insecure in practice—the report takes no consideration of the severity of the flaws" Then what's the point?
"Eyeballs"?
Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
11–20 of 28 posts
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#12Many of Apple's flaws are not in its operating system, Mac OS X, but rather in software like Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes.
"...a growing trend in the world of security flaws: the role of third-party software. Many of Apple's flaws are not in its operating system, Mac OS X, but rather in software like Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes."
How are any of those third-party? They are all sold by Apple. Just because they also happen to run in Windows doesn't make them third-party.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#13"Though this does not necessarily mean that Apple's software is the most insecure in practice—the report takes no consideration of the severity of the flaws" Then what's the point?
Everyone loves attention.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#14So it sounds like the real problem is that we need to create some sort of unified updating system for third party apps, so you don't have to deal with ten different programs complaining they need to be updated. Something so simple, it only needs a single command to run. Like apt-get upgrade. Maybe they should have that for windows/mac.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#15It is fortunate that Apple still has a small enough market share that they aren't being attacked as vigorously as Windows is. For now I still feel like my Mac is safer from viruses than the average Windows machine, but that security is definitely shaky if Apple gets a larger market share and starts attracting real attention from viruses and hackers.
The Mac share of viruses is zero. If youre right & market share is the only consideration, logically that means nobody should be writing any software (eg games) for Mac either.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#16The actual report ( http://secunia.com/gfx/pdf/Secunia_Half_Year_Report_2010.pdf ) is only about Windows computers. So it's about iTunes, Safari ... for Windows, not Mac OSX. " In the first part of the report we look at the global picture covering all vulnerabilities in all products, followed by the analysis of vulnerabilities affecting the products and the operating system found on typical end-users PCs. "
In a similar vein:
>Vendors like Adobe (with Flash and Adobe Reader) and Oracle (with Java) are similarly responsible for many of the flaws being reported.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#17Their report only analyzes the criticality of Windows-based exploits, and leaves Oracle and Apple bugs' severity undefined. I can't find anywhere on Secunia's website that they make a big deal out of this though, so I'm going to chock it up to Arstechnica being sensationalist.
I also noticed Ars becoming much more anti-Apple as well as sensationalist. Articles like Siracusa coverage on the antenna press conference as well as his twitter feed seemed oddly vindictive to me.
http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits/2010/07/unanswered-ques...
I found it unsettling considering Ars has been a top source of tech news for me in the past that I thought was very even and thorough.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#18Their report only analyzes the criticality of Windows-based exploits, and leaves Oracle and Apple bugs' severity undefined. I can't find anywhere on Secunia's website that they make a big deal out of this though, so I'm going to chock it up to Arstechnica being sensationalist.
I also noticed Ars becoming much more anti-Apple as well as sensationalist. Articles like Siracusa coverage on the antenna press conference as well as his twitter feed seemed oddly vindictive to me. http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits/2010/07/unanswered-ques... I found it unsettling considering Ars has been a top source of tech news for me in the past that I thought was very even and thorough.
Have you considered that an even and thorough approach to tech news may go through periods where it levels more criticism than usual at Apple?
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#19It is fortunate that Apple still has a small enough market share that they aren't being attacked as vigorously as Windows is. For now I still feel like my Mac is safer from viruses than the average Windows machine, but that security is definitely shaky if Apple gets a larger market share and starts attracting real attention from viruses and hackers.
I hear this enough to wonder if it's a myth. Mac OS is built on Unix, so how does the total Unix+Linux+Mac market share look? Probably big enough to justify attacking. I suspect but can't prove that Unix is inherently more secure than Windows (or more easily secured). I've actually had a Mac compromised before after being lazy about the password setup. I suspect it difficult for the botnets to get traction, but they'…
It's only fair to count Unix+Linux+Mac as one market if a single exploit could work on all of them, which I doubt.
Re: Apple the new world leader in software insecurity
#20Their report only analyzes the criticality of Windows-based exploits, and leaves Oracle and Apple bugs' severity undefined. I can't find anywhere on Secunia's website that they make a big deal out of this though, so I'm going to chock it up to Arstechnica being sensationalist.
I also noticed Ars becoming much more anti-Apple as well as sensationalist. Articles like Siracusa coverage on the antenna press conference as well as his twitter feed seemed oddly vindictive to me. http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits/2010/07/unanswered-ques... I found it unsettling considering Ars has been a top source of tech news for me in the past that I thought was very even and thorough.
Whenever I think a site that was even and thorough is becoming biased, I have to ask myself if they were actually biased before, but are now becoming more fair. Sometimes I conclude that I was the one who was biased.