Mac OS X, BSD Unix top security survey

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 the world, 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 2009 Mac Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.