Apple Thoughts: Whose Software Is More Insecure: Apple or Microsoft?

"Security analysts and Windows managers often point a finger at Apple's longstanding place at the top of Secunia's OS vendor vulnerabilities list. However, that chart may map only part of the insecurity picture.

Neil MacDonald, a vice president at Gartner Research recently authored a research note on whether antivirus software is needed on Mac OS X and Linux desktops. (The answer is yes.)"

Interesting to see the competition between Apple and Microsoft moving more visibly into the area of insecurity and vulnerability. Conventional wisdom (ugh!) says that computers running OS X don't need antivirus software, and that only Windows is a malware magnet. Wrong. Vulnerability testing and white-hat hacking are showing that OS X is insecure, and that some of the security features currently in Windows (Vista and 7) are not equivalently implemented in OS X. Mac vulnerabilities are there, but, due to Windows overwhelming market share, malware writers go for the bigger target. What this tells us is that no OS is really secure. So, please, use an antivirus program! Excellent freeware for Mac OS X is Sophos Anti-virus. Get it here.