Macs are more secure

Even though the widely held perception of “Mac Invincibility” to malware has been under question recently, Apple’s Mac OS X is still widely regarded to be less vulnerable to security threats since most computer hackers write code that predominantly targets Windows based machines. F-Secure warns Mac users to take security seriously but admits that the number of attacks on Macs are relatively low. A Google search produces about 120 results for "Mac malware". Norton Antivirus for Mac lists just under 20 viruses that affect Macs.[http://gizmodo.com/337077/us-army-to-instigate-wider-mac-implementation]] The US Army recently initiated a program (under the leadership of Jonathan Browsky) to add more Macs to its Arsenal. Following internet attacks on the Pentagon and members of the army industrial complex such as Boeing and Raytheon, the Army has been working to increase network security and eliminate flaws within the network. The decision to employ a larger percentage of Macs was a penultimate measure to achieve these goals. Even in spite of the recent exploit in Canada, Macs are less likely to develop problems with malware and viruses because of 4 important facts. 1) Mac OS X users don’t run with administrator privileges. Until Windows Vista, almost every Windows user had all privileges to install and modify their OS at all times. Mac OS X, on the other hand, always has users run without such privileges. That means you have to type a password to install or change any critical system software. That minimizes the damage that Web or email-based malware can do. And unlike Windows, there is no compatibility requirement for ActiveX binary code insertion into the user or kernel environment via the Web in Mac OS X. 2) Mac OS X has less spaghetti code. Ask any security guru and he or she will tell you: a simpler software model is easier to secure than a complex one. Any Unix has only about 200 entry points into the secure kernel environment. And while there are many libraries in the Mac OS X system, most of those don’t have enough privileges to do anything really bad. 3) Mac OS X mail doesn’t automatically run attachments. One of the poorest security decisions that Microsoft made was that back in 2000 or so, it configured its Outlook and Outlook Express mail systems to automatically execute script code on incoming HTML email without any user action required. This was one of the big vectors for virus proliferation earlier this decade. Microsoft has since patched that problem, but it remains a headache for the entire Microsoft ecosystem because unpatched systems still exist. Meanwhile, Apple mail systems have never run attachments or HTML code automatically, so this very common vector for virus transmission just doesn’t exist in the Apple world. 4) Apple can actively manage and verify its hardware Apple doesn’t need to sacrifice security for compatibility with a million different hardware configurations. In fact, as we’ve seen in its latest Leopard launch, Apple actively prunes the number of hardware configurations it supports. And Apple has demonstrated with its iPhone that it is no stranger to locking down its hardware/software products to guarantee a good user experience. As a result, Apple doesn’t have to provide insecure compatibility interfaces for old hardware or software systems—and therefore can minimize its threat exposure. Furthermore, Safari is based on WebKit, which is open source. Charlie Miller was able to develop an exploit for Safari because he used his access to WebKit’s source code, while had this exploit been in the wild from the get-go, more than likely a third party would have discovered the flaw and disclosed it before it could become a significant threat. That’s the beauty of open source. Miller actually held back the exploit so that he could win some money and fame, which is contrary to what open source is supposed to be about. And the simple fact remains, no hacker was able to hack into the MacBook Air remotely on the first day of competition. In order to get his exploit to work, Charlie Millier had to use a crossover cable that connected his MacBook directly with the MacBook Air in question. He was also allowed to direct the MacBook Air user directly to the malicious site containing his exploit.