Security: Mac OS X vs. Windows

Last week, a minor firestorm erupted when PC Magazine columnist Lance Ulanoff wrote a ridiculously inflammatory article gleefully declaring that, “the Mac OS is just as vulnerable as Microsoft Windows.”

I know this is wrong, but in one respect I was happy to learn earlier this month about the discovery of a significant security hole in the Jaguar and Panther versions (10.2 and 10.3, respectively) of the Apple operating system (OS).

Richard Forno, former Chief Security Officer for Network Solutions, has responded with a comparison of Mac OS X and Windows security — and Windows doesn’t exactly come out ahead.

In a December 11 column that epitomizes the concept of yellow journalism, he’s “happy” that Mac OS X is vulnerable to a new and quite significant security vulnerability. The article was based on a security advisory by researcher Bill Carrel regarding a DHCP vulnerability in Mac OS X. Carrel reported the vulnerability to Apple in mid-October and, through responsible disclosure practices, waited for a prolonged period before releasing the exploit information publicly since Apple was slow in responding to Carrel’s report (a common problem with all big software vendors.)  Accordingly, Lance took this as a green light to launch into a snide tirade about how  “Mac OS is just as vulnerable as Microsoft Windows” while penning paragraph after paragraph saying “I told you so” and calling anyone who disagrees with him a “Mac zealot.”

You’re either with him or with the “zealots.”  Where have we heard this narrow-minded extremist view before?  

More to the point, his article is replete with factual errors. Had he done his homework instead of rushing to smear the Mac security community and fuel his Windows-based envy, he’d have known that not only did Apple tell Carrel on November 19 that a technical fix for the problem would be released in its December Mac OS X update, but that Apple released easy-to-read guidance (complete with screenshots) for users to mitigate this problem on November 26.  Somehow he missed that.

Since he’s obviously neither a technologist (despite writing for a technology magazine) nor a security expert, let’s examine a few differences between Mac and Windows to see why Macintosh systems are, despite his crowing, whining, and wishing, inherently more secure than Windows systems.

(via Damien)