Tech Q&A - Security

[Tiberius]

How much safer are macs?

Assuming we are talking about the relative security of the OS X operating system when compared to Windows or Linux, it really depends on how it is configured, and how well you look after it. A badly configured Linux or OS X computer can fall to malware just as easily as a Windows computer.

It is a myth that there are no viruses (or malware, generally) for OS X or Linux, however it is true that in general, malware for these systems is less damaging than malware for Windows. This is due to Windows being designed for ease of use, with security as an afterthought, and OS X / Linux being designed with security at least in mind. On a lot of Windows installations, the Administrator account is used as the main user account, whilst the administrator account on Linux / OS X ('root') is kept completely separate and is rarely used for non-system functions.

Authenticating as an admin account on Windows can be done pretty much automatically as well, which doesn't help things. On OS X and Linux, either the admin password, or a user password (from a trusted user) has to be given at a prompt before the admin account can be used. This prevents malware from easily gaining access to an admin account, unless of course the password is particularly bad.

Patch release cycles are also generally more regular on Linux and OS X than on Windows. Both former OS's seem to release patches and updates as soon as possible, whilst Microsoft release theirs once a month. Regularity is a great thing for a sysadmin, but it's not so good in terms of security. If a vulnerability is discovered the day after the most recent patch release, malware authors have a whole month to write and deploy malicious code before a patch is released. In contrast, I've seen critical Linux patches released several hours after the vulnerability was discovered.

So whilst I would recommend either OS X or Linux for security benefits, they should be kept up to date, and have anti-virus software installed on them.

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how do I hack into the Pentagon?

If we are to believe Gary McKinnon, you don't need to. They have loads of computers with blank administrator passwords.