Want Security? Drop Windows and Move to Linux, or Mac OS X
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 10.9.2007
There is no silver bullet solution for security, and no foolproof client operating system. But the fact of the matter is that while neither Linux, nor Mac OS X and not even Windows Vista are panacea solutions for protecting users, they are all less attacked than Windows XP and older versions of the Microsoft platform.
And the lack of an evolved threat environment goes hand in hand with the perception of security. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has played a counting game with the security flaws of various rival operating systems since Vista was introduced, just to highlight it as the most secure Windows platform to date.
But the sheer volume of vulnerabilities is not the sole relevant aspect when delivering a measure for security. In the context of a virtually inexistent threat environment, the kind enjoyed by Mac OS X and Linux, vulnerability measuring games amount to nothing, as there is little to no malicious code to exploit them. This of course is intimately connected with the market share of each operating system.
Windows Vista is currently just over the 6% milestone, and in this respect, just as obscure as Mac OS X, while Linux is still struggling under 1%. In contrast, Windows XP enjoys over 80% of the operating system market. Now a target exploit could hit even blindfolded...
"It is worth noting that almost all of the malware I find in my day to day work will only run on Windows computers. All operating systems suffer from vulnerabilities and personally, I refuse to enter the ‘my os is better than your os’ argument. But using an operating system other than Windows will prevent the majority of malware from running," revealed a member of the Sophos Labs.
Case in point: "Virus Top Twenty for August 2007" compiled by Kaspersky Lab and "The top ten list of web-based malware threats in August 2007" put together by Sophos. The first features no less than 20 examples of malware with Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.q reigning supreme at the top, and all for Windows. Sophos' top ten is also exclusively focused on the Windows operating system.
"Cybercriminals are successfully using email and the web in co-ordination to infect innocent internet surfers," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "Home users and businesses alike need to take more steps to protect themselves from online threats, or risk being hit time and time again. It should be clear for everyone to see that businesses, web hosts and ISPs are failing to properly defend their websites. Fraudsters are continuing to find rich pickings on the internet, duping users into handing over their personal information."
source:
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Comments(13)
vista = windows me
the nice thing about switching from windows to linux is that you don't have to buy a new
computer to run it as you would if you switched to osx.
in fact the only legal way you can use osx is if you buy one of their computers if
you're going to switch to it....
three computers, windows xp professional, online, broadband, 24/7,no attaks of any kind
since the days of dos 5.0. you guys must be bored.
it's all about marketshare. i laugh when linux or mac users think their operating
system is impervious to attacks. fact is, that linus and mac users are such a very small
part of the market that no one wants to waste their time trying to attack an operating
system that barely anyone uses.
most of the world uses a windows machine and
for that fact alone is why windows gets attacked. i don't care what os i use. all i
know is that windows is the most popular and most supported. linux is for the super geek
that lives in his moms basement and has nothing else to do. a mac is for people that think
they are part of the cool crowd when actually they are just as lame as a linux user. look
a new color of ipod is out and i have to have it! bunch of f.ckin brain washed idiots.
i have never once been infected by a virus. never been hacked. and that's
going back to the dos days. if windows was the minority of os's then we would be talking
about how wonderful, stable, and virus free it is.
have you ever tried to attack mac or linux os?....don't do it 'cause it's impossible!!
do you imagine a world without windows?...so,no antivirus,no spybot ext....it's just
business!...the real thing is that windows is steal dos based....mac is "linux based" by
linus.
switch to mac...
it's not impossible, believe me...
vulnerabilities are everywere. simply in windows
are found faster because it is used by more people...
i'm laughing at you. you obviously are one of these windows users that hasn't ever
tried os x or linux. you have your head stuck in cement that was poured 10 years ago when
u make statements like "no one wants to waste their time trying to attack an operating
system that barely anyone use". most of the world are losers and can't afford a
macintosh computer. this is just pointless...i am getting tired of typing a reply to
someone who is obviously a dumb-ass. here is what i say: get a life...get a job that
allows you to afford a real computer...lose some weight..dump that zune in favor of an
ipod..get a nintendo wii and get you head out of bill gates' crotch.
you say you have never been infected by a virus...dude ..you are a pc user...of course
you have been infected......rotflmao.....sheeeeeeesh
hahahahahaha......it's
probably your machine that sent
spam to me this morning for v i a g r a .
if i buy the least popular car then i'm pretty much be guaranteed to have less tickets
and accidents won't even exist!
woot!! thanks for opening my eyes!
vista
by packedfunk on 11.09.2007 - 01:09
vista = windows me
linux
by
sjc1963 on 11.09.2007 - 01:09
the nice thing about switching from windows to linux is
that you don't have to buy a new computer to run it as you would if you switched to osx.
.p.s.
by sjc1963 on 11.09.2007 - 01:09
in fact the only legal way you can
use osx is if you buy one of their computers if you're going to switch to it....
no
problems here
by whozzit on 11.09.2007 - 03:09
three computers, windows xp
professional, online, broadband, 24/7,no attaks of any kind since the days of dos 5.0. you
guys must be bored.
marketshare
by me on 11.09.2007 - 05:09
it's all about
marketshare. i laugh when linux or mac users think their operating system is impervious to
attacks. fact is, that linus and mac users are such a very small part of the market that
no one wants to waste their time trying to attack an operating system that barely anyone
uses.
most of the world uses a windows machine and for that fact alone is why
windows gets attacked. i don't care what os i use. all i know is that windows is the most
popular and most supported. linux is for the super geek that lives in his moms basement
and has nothing else to do. a mac is for people that think they are part of the cool crowd
when actually they are just as lame as a linux user. look a new color of ipod is out and i
have to have it! bunch of f.ckin brain washed idiots.
i have never once been
infected by a virus. never been hacked. and that's going back to the dos days. if windows
was the minority of os's then we would be talking about how wonderful, stable, and virus
free it is.
business
by boh on 11.09.2007 - 09:09
have you ever tried to
attack mac or linux os?....don't do it 'cause it's impossible!!
do you imagine a
world without windows?...so,no antivirus,no spybot ext....it's just business!...the real
thing is that windows is steal dos based....mac is "linux based" by linus.
switch to mac...
i'ts not impossible
by vash on 11.09.2007 - 14:09
it's
not impossible, believe me...
vulnerabilities are everywere. simply in windows are
found faster because it is used by more people...
hey 'marketshare'...you're nuts
by windows is scarrry on 11.09.2007 - 17:09
i'm laughing at you. you obviously
are one of these windows users that hasn't ever tried os x or linux. you have your head
stuck in cement that was poured 10 years ago when u make statements like "no one wants to
waste their time trying to attack an operating system that barely anyone use". most of
the world are losers and can't afford a macintosh computer. this is just pointless...i am
getting tired of typing a reply to someone who is obviously a dumb-ass. here is what i
say: get a life...get a job that allows you to afford a real computer...lose some
weight..dump that zune in favor of an ipod..get a nintendo wii and get you head out of
bill gates' crotch.
marketshare
by windows is poop on 11.09.2007 - 17:09
you say you have never been infected by a virus...dude ..you are a pc user...of course you
have been infected......rotflmao.....sheeeeeeesh
hahahahahaha......it's
probably your machine that sent
spam to me this morning for v i a g r a .
with
this line of thinking...
by madsquabbles on 11.09.2007 - 17:09
if i buy the
least popular car then i'm pretty much be guaranteed to have less tickets and accidents
won't even exist!
woot!! thanks for opening my eyes!
who said that mac or linux has no security flaws? apple said so, but in security show one
man hacked osx in 12 min, simply using laptop and web. linux distros are fixe security
flaws so slowly, or event can't fix at all. so believe in me, whatever the most popular
os would be, it will be most vulnerable. not because its bad or realy bugy, but because
its the most popular and most atracktive for hackers.
peace
whenever somebody mentions the low quality of windows (any version), we always receive
the same response : crackers aren't interested in lesser known operating systems (mac os,
linux, etc.); it's more prestigious to attack windows, ...
that is nonsense. let's
take a look at the popularity aspect : yahoo and google are two of the most widely used
search engines. according to netcraft, they run on freebsd and linux respectively. how
come internet users are never told that their search cannot be performed because of nimda
or code red ?
the preferred excuse of security experts is that home users are
negligent. i beg to differ. on my pc, there is a windows xp pro partition and a mandriva
linux one.
on windows, i've installed an anti-virus (avast), 6 anti-spywares
(adaware, spybot search and destroy, spywareblaster, a-square free, trend micro
antispyware, rogue remover free), 7 registry utilities (crap cleaner, ncleaner, registry
distiller free, easycleaner, registry manager free, eraser, wise registry cleaner), 4
anti-rootkits (darkspy, f-secure blacklight, icesword, gmer), a firewall (comodo) and a
disk defragmenter (jkdefrag). sorry for the detailed list, it's just in case some of you
tell me that i shouldn't use warez (the software mentioned above are all free).
i
regularly update and run these applications yet i recently got hit by something called
virtumonde which brought windows to a crawl. it took me hours to get rid of that stuff and
to make sure it was completely gone. so, tell me, what did i do wrong ?
on the other
hand, the day i installed mandriva linux, i configured the network and the firewall, run
bastille to secure the os. since then, the only thing i've done is install the available
updates, no antivirus, no spyware or any other baby sitting. my computing experience with
linux has been smooth. it would have been the same had i used freebsd or openbsd. hence my
question for microsoft apologists : why can't windows achieve the level of quality
reached by the bsd or linux operating systems ? it is appalling that billionaires can't
do the same thing as a loosely knit bunch of volunteers.
there is another thing
i don't understand : the nt kernel was developed under the lead of dave cutler, the guy
who previously created vms. in the words of a guy named jam-master jim, how could an os
derived from vms be so insecure, especially with the security subsystem copied across
almost intact ?
translation : how did microsoft take a jewel and turn it into
windows, the software equivalent of an ebola and sars infected patient ?
back
to the popularity pretext : when it comes to writing malware, crackers supposedly ignore
other operating systems the way grand-ma jane (who lives in some remote area) only cares
about windows. that's patently false as demonstrated by articles published in venues like
phrack.
no matter what windows defenders say, it is possible to create an
operating system that is not a malware brothel. just look at mac os x, solaris, linux or
the bsd. they are used at home, in financial institutes, research centers, colleges and
fortune 500 corporations. they aren't produced by martians or angels. they come from
regular guys and gals who attended the same schools as microsoft employees.
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Vista
By packedfunk on 11.09.2007 - 01:09