“Microsoft Windows XP Professional with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Highly critical. This is based on the most severe Secunia advisory, which is marked as “Unpatched” in the Secunia database. Go to Unpatched/Patched list below for details. Currently, 18 out of 66 Secunia advisories, is marked as ‘Unpatched’ in the Secunia database,’ Secunia advises.
A complete list of Patched/Unpatched Secunia Advisories, which affects Microsoft Windows XP Professional is here. If you are using this product, you should be aware of all the Secunia advisories affecting it, in order to secure it.
MacDailyNews Take: For our Windows-only friends, more information about smoothly adding a safe, secure, fast, and fun Mac OS X machine to your computing arsenal can be found here. There is a better way.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Information Security Investigator says switch from Windows to Mac OS X for security – September 24, 2004
USA Today: people are switching from Windows to Mac because of security issues – September 21, 2004
The Motley Fool: Windows viruses, Apple iPod’s ‘Halo Effect’ may drive switch from Windows to Mac OS X – September 21, 2004
Gartner VP: Windows is the biggest beta test the world has ever known – September 20, 2004
Windows besieged by hackers; number of Windows viruses soars by more than 400% – September 20, 2004
Review: Windows XP SP2 ‘remains leaky, profoundly unsafe on the internet’ – September 17, 2004
Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg: ‘The single most effective way to avoid viruses and spyware is to simply chuck Windows altogether and buy an Apple Macintosh’ – September 16, 2004
The emperor has no clothes.
To promote fairness and impartiality, here’s the list of issues Secunia has found pertaining to OS X:
http://secunia.com/product/96/
Note that, when comparing the two lists, that Apple has had 39 advisories, with 5 remaining unpatched at this date. And out of those five, only one (the “Apple Filing Protocol Insecure Implementation”) can be exploited remotely. See Secunia’s advisory for this issue here:
http://secunia.com/advisories/11012/
in comparison, 8 of the 18 unpatched security issues in WinXP can be exploited remotely.
No matter how you slice it, WinXP has AT LEAST double the security problems that OS X has. And yet your bank, your work, your air traffic control tower, etc., are all using this awful POS.
Windows User Daily Diary & Worksheet.
1/ Turn On Computer
2/ Run Anti-virus software.
3/ Search MS site for latest patches.
4/ Download patches.
5/ Apply patches.
6/ Call tech support because PC will not (insert word “print” “locate files” “boot” “recognize hard drive” or one of a hundred other bad situations)
7/ Say “Oh sh*t” when tech support asks when was the last time you backed up… You realize it was last week, and you’ve just lost ANOTHER week of work.
8/ Get coffee.
9/ Go to lunch
10/ Return from lunch – continue to wait for tech support.
11/ Call tech support again – only to be told that everyone installed the upgrade and the entire company is down.
12/ Go to lunch again.
13/ Return from 2nd lunch. Call tech support for update.
14/ Go home.
Check out the Secunia list for OSX:
http://secunia.com/product/96/
beat me to it!
I did and it’s not even remotely close to being as bad as the Windows XP list…so what’s your point?
OK, OK. Apple has some security issues, too.
However, it does give me some satisfaction that Apple has significantly LESS security problems than Microsoft, and will be delivering Tiger in 2005.
I burns my biscuits to hear Windows users rave about Microsoft when MS products are more insecure and years behind schedule.
Whatcha wnt for nothin’
…a rubber biscuit?
The Blues Brothers
No OS is 100% foolproof. The point is how easily are those issues exploitable remotely and with which critical risk.
OS X has only one issue that is slightly more than a joke. And even that…
Sorry, there is not even a comparison possible between OS X and XP. The point is that on XP your data are easily screwed any moment. Not so on OS X, even with a sloppy user.
comparing OS X and XP is like pretending to equate two of today’s patients. Technically they present the same issue, hence no real difference between them?! You be the judge:
One broke the little finger, the other both legs, an exposed radio bone fracture, and suspected fractured spine. Yeah, technically both suffer from bone fractures…
ER intern,
Hilarious!! That just about sums ‘er up!
Keep in mind the security issues at hand were from the original BSD code. Not from Apple.
Re: Windows User Daily Diary & Worksheet.
1/ Turn On Computer
2/ Run Anti-virus software.
3/ Search MS site for latest patches.
4/ Download patches.
5/ Apply patches.
6/ Call tech support because PC will not (insert word “print” “locate files” “boot” “recognize hard drive” or one of a hundred other bad situations)
7/ Say “Oh sh*t” when tech support asks when was the last time you backed up… You realize it was last week, and you’ve just lost ANOTHER week of work.
8/ Get coffee.
9/ Go to lunch
10/ Return from lunch – continue to wait for tech support.
11/ Call tech support again – only to be told that everyone installed the upgrade and the entire company is down.
12/ Go to lunch again.
13/ Return from 2nd lunch. Call tech support for update.
14/ Go home.
Apple Mac Daily Diary & Worksheet.
1. Turn on computer
2. Work
3. Play
4. Turn off computer
Need I say any more???….
Apple seems to be dedicated to fixing any problems that it has and I’m sure they are active in pushing the Unix community to help fix any remaining issues with the BSD code.
I bet a good investigation of Secunia’s (books), (parking lot), (vending machine), (bathroom), (whatever), would turn up a whole boatload of stuff we could define as critical, dangerous, defective or wrong. It’s all in how you define it and what your agenda is. Theirs is to sell you security stuff, whether you need it or not. (Virex anyone?)
By the way, nice one Solar Flare.
solarflare, you can even cut 1 and 4 from the Mac list, because it isn’t worried by being left on all the time. You can use “Sleep” or, better yet, get Folding @ Home and put your computer to work helping mankind while you sleep.
I’m sitting here in Daytona Beach, FL waiting on the third hurricane. My roommates Windoze computer is so screwed up that we can’t even use it to look up the weather maps. So for anyone around me you can add a 3a. for that.
Glick7,
You forgot: “Reinstall Windows.”
This reminds me of something I was watching. There’s this health teacher and he’s talking about sex. He basically says, “Don’t have sex. If you do, you will get pregnant and you will get STD’s.” Let me paraphrase. “Don’t use Windows. If you do, you will get a virus and your computer will be screwed.” Oh the problems I’ve had with my roommate’s computer in Windows. To his credit, he actually prefers Linux and hardly uses Windows except for Counter Strike and his IM client. But, he still runs Windows therefore he still has a POS OS.
David…
Keep yer head down and be safe !! .. Ok ??
Glick7 and solar flare…
I dont know where you guys work but your staff and hardware must REALLY Suck.
Need I Say more?
uhmm, let’s see: places where I heard Windows installation sux and staff complain: Nasa, CERN, University of Cal, Berkeley, SLAC, Fermilab, University of Geveva, WellsFargo, CitiBank, Rome Airport, Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle,… etc, etc.
Need I Say MORE? I could you know. I still have to find a place where employees truly are happy with their Windows installation and are happy to use it.
Not one so far in what… 15 years on traveling.
Go figure. Where do you work? 30 workplaces?
hey guys check this out:
[url=http://www.satisfiedwindowsuser.com]http://www.satisfiedwindowsuser.com[/url]
/link goes nowhere
mike,
[link goes nowhere]
That’s some list
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mike k. [server not found]. I guess the site was brought down for lack of data.
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