Mac OS X, BSD Unix top security survey

Peter Cohen   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Security Stories  

Web Threats Don't Discriminate The Secure Web Gateway. Mission Critical For Business Dynamic Data Center and Virtualization Drives Operational Excellence at Emory Healthcare Fast and Simple Recovery of Your Critical Microsoft® Applications with Symantec Backup Exec" Converging System and Data Protection for Complete Disaster Recovery Learn How to Think Ahead of Attacks and Protect your Data For the Future Compterworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Computerworld Report- Large Enterprises Pay More for IPAM An Apple for Your Enterprise? Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts

November 2, 2004 (MacWorld) -- London-based security firm Mi2g Ltd. yesterday released a report that says Mac OS X and BSD Unix are the "world's safest and most secure 24/7 online computing environments." Linux operating systems offer the worst track record, according to Mi2g, with Windows coming in second.
"More and more smart individuals, government agencies and corporations are shifting towards Apple and BSD environments in 2004," said DK Matai, executive chairman of Mi2g. Matai calls adoption of Mac OS X and BSD Unix "an accelerating paradigm shift" thanks to professionals who "don't have the time to cope with umpteen flavors of Linux or to wait for Microsoft Corp.'s Longhorn when Windows XP has proved to be a stumbling block in some well chronicled instances."
The study analyzed 235,907 break-ins against permanently connected computers around the world between November 2003 and last month. The systems broken into run the gamut from home and small-office machines to small, medium and large corporations -- everything from computers connected to the Internet without the benefit of a firewall to firewall-protected enterprises with dedicated IT staff, intrusion-detection systems and other protective measures in place.
Of the 235,907 successful break-ins researched as part of this study, 65.64%, or 154,846, were made against Linux-based systems. Microsoft Windows computers accounted for 25.19% of all break-ins recorded, while Mac OS X- or BSD-based computers accounted for just 4.82% of all breaches recorded.
Mi2g's study reports that more than 32.7% of digital breaches occurred against what they term "micro entities" -- home-based individuals or other very small-scale operations -- while 58.8% of all breaches were carried out against "small entitles." As the companies grew larger, security definitely increased -- 6.1% of all such breaches were made against medium-size businesses, and only 2.5% were made against large entities, including big businesses, government agencies and nongovernment organizations.
Mac OS X and BSD Unix represent a smaller installed base of computers than Windows or, by some estimates, Linux machines. This has led to what some security experts and industry pundits call "security through obscurity": Because there are fewer Macs, fewer hackers will try to exploit them, since they aren't as familiar with the operating system and their efforts are less likely to have a widespread impact.
Mi2g made no attempt to weigh in on this issue.
The company estimates that worldwide economic damage in 2004 from these intrusions at between $103 and $126 billion.
Mi2g also concluded that environments running Mac OS X, as well as BSD Unix and Linux, have not experienced "any significant economic damage" from malware attacks such as viruses, worms and Trojan horses.
"Windows has become the most breached computing environment in theworld, accounting for most of the productivity losses associated with malware ... proliferation. This is directly the result of very insignificant quantities of highly damaging mass-spreading malware being written for other computing environments like Linux, BSD and Mac OS X," said the report.
The company estimates that malware will cost organizations and individuals another $166 billion to $202 billion in 2004, including support costs, loss of business, bandwidth clogging and other costs.

Reprinted with permission from

For more Macintosh news, visit MacWorld.com.
Story copyright 2006 Mac Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"The recent attacks in Mumbai were carried out by assailants using high tech methods. It’s just another way in which..." Read more... Read more Security posts or See all Blogs

Virtually every Windows PC at risk, says Secunia License server glitch exposes SonicWall users to e-mail security threats Transmitting data from the middle of nowhere More top stories...

Moving to a start-up? Fasten your seatbelt In high-tech schools of the future, Facebook in class is boosted -- not banned Clues point to Jan. 13 release of Windows 7 beta

Review: The new MacBook Air, now with extra SSD goodness Thin as ever, the latest Air offers up to twice the storage and snappy performance. Cool Stuff: Your 2008 Holiday Gift Guide We've got an array of economical, expensive, and just plain weird tech gifts for your friends and family. Massive botnet returns from the dead, starts spamming The spam-spewing 'Srizbi' botnet that was shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected and is again under criminal control, say security researchers. Elgan: Why you can't trust 'friends' on Facebook Facebook is popular and growing -- especially with criminals. Here's why they love it. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality View this exclusive webcast today! Go to the webcast  Computerworld Executive Bulletin: Building a Robust Antivirus Defense Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs. (Source: MessageLabs) Antivirus software alone isn't enough to prevent today's speedy, sophisticated virus attacks. Security managers should consider multitiered approaches that include behavior scanning, appliances that check e-mail for worms, and restricting user access to dangerous Web sites. Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs, to learn more. Download this executive briefing  Record Capacity for Microsoft® Exchange 2007 With VMware and IBM System x3850 M2 Download this white paper today! (Source: VMware) The more that e-mail becomes an entrenched IT infrastructure application, the more that messaging administrators face numerous--sometimes conflicting--demands in the categories of availability, flexibility and cost. Employing a virtual solution can help avoid expensive over-provisioning of server computing resources, while improving management and disaster recovery. And ultimately, it can more than double the number of supportable Exchange 2007 users, as compared to a non-virtualized environment. This whitepaper explains how to break down the scalability barrier and respond faster to your mail system needs. Download this white paper  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. The Importance of Application Management Dell Client Migration and Deployment Services Windows® Enterprise Data Protection with Symantec Backup Exec" View more whitepapers

• Virtually every Windows PC at risk, says Secunia
• Moving to a start-up? Fasten your seatbelt
• License server glitch exposes SonicWall users to e-mail security threats
• More top stories 

The Security Zone With the mobility of employees and the ease with which external devices can be brought in and out of a network, continuing to build your security plan for network servers and clients is a must. Fortunately, there is much that organizations can do to protect themselves from attacks - internal and external. Having the right policies, procedures and server configurations is critical... Learn more in The Security Zone See All Zones

Fired up about IT? Join Sharkbait and share your true tales of IT. SharkBait is the place for you to sound off about everything IT – the good, the bad, and the rest of the weird stuff you deal with every day. New baits

"Turning information into a Competitive Advantage" Companies today are realizing that competitive advantage is harder to sustain when based solely on gains in productivity and cost efficiency. The focus is shifting to invest more in business optimization initiatives which rely on trusted information to develop new insights that deliver better business results. But how can this be done efficiently in a business environment across multiple applications and processes. The answer is an Information Agenda - an innovative approach to transforming business information into a strategic asset for competitive advantage. View this webcast now!  See more Webcasts

Dan Tynan Today's Internet has been brought to you by porn YouTube and Ning are trying to shed adult-oriented content to appeal to mainstream advertisers. Will it work? ... [more]