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Tuesday, May 4, 2004
![[Item Permalink]](http://radio.weblogs.com/0112083/images/ur_bullet.gif){kind=small} Is Mac OS X really more secure than Windows? -- Comment()
Ssp commented once again on Mac OS X vs. Windows security: "The argument I don't buy is the whole 'you need a password to install things on the Mac' thing. 'So what?' I'd answer. I am sure if a malicious program sets itself up as a startup item on my personal account it will have enough privileges to abuse my address book to multiply itself and do other damage. OSX does separate the system and the user via privileges and thus protects the system. But that also means that from a user's point of view I don't care about the system as I can't break. For me 'the computer' is whatever I have access to. And a malicious program wreaking havoc in my home folder will be as bad as the destruction of the whole system." There seem to be all kinds of opinions about security. Some say that Windows systems will be hardened by the viruses and exploits, so Windows security will be (in the end) the best there is. Others point out to the danger of monoculture, which means that Windows is a huge risk. And still other say that the relative number of viruses and exploits is directly related to market share, thus effectively saying that all systems are similarly weak in security. But my daily experiences of Mac OS X have been positive so far. The problems which I have had have been mostly my own fault - deleting a file accidentally, or trying to fix something which was not broken. For example, yesterday my ADSL broadband connection at home stopped working, so finally I even rebooted my iBook, to no avail. But then I learned that the ADSL connection was at fault. Two hours later the connection was again working. But perhaps I trust Mac OS X too much - install software which may be spyware or contain trojans, etc. I do have Norton Antivirus at work and Virex at home, are running the built-in firewall, etc. - so I'm not completely without protection, but is this enough?
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