One of the things that Windows is always heavily criticized for is the lack of security features out-of-the-box. Windows XP and Vista do come with free firewalls, and Vista has the new User Account Control (UAC), but people still expect it to do more.
Mac’s, on the other hand, never seem to be looked at from a security perspective because you hear little about Mac viruses and what not. Because Mac’s are virtually virus free doesn’t mean that you are completely secure though, as some reports are already starting to point out.
Interestingly enough the Leopard firewall is disabled by default, and that’s probably to ensure that older applications don’t have problems connecting to the Internet. After all, Apple is trying to give the best user experience possible. Even with it enabled, however, Heise Security still didn’t feel secure:
Worse still, a user who, for security purposes, has previously activated the firewall on his or her Mac will find that, after upgrading to Leopard, the system restarts with the firewall deactivated.
In contrast to, for example, Windows Vista, the Leopard firewall settings fail to distinguish between trusted networks, such as a protected company network, and potentially dangerous wireless networks in airports or even direct internet connections. Leopard initially takes the magnanimous position of trusting all networks equally.
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However, initial functional testing quickly dispels any feeling of improved security.
Microsoft made that same mistake when they shipped Windows XP back in 2001. They turned off the firewall by default, and had the configuration screen buried away so that a majority of users would never find it. They compensated for their mistakes when they released XP SP2, which shipped with the Windows Firewall enabled by default. I mean really, what’s the point of a security feature that a company isn’t confident enough to enable out-of-the-box?
Apple has sold over 2 million copies of Leopard in the opening weekend, but some of these users might be getting a false sense of security.
Thanks to S and CoryC for the tips!
That’s a fact, we never hear about Mac viruses or security issues.
But I just cannot believe they are that safe.
You’re right to point out default firewall disabling and so on, like in XP old days.
What’s going to happen if one of these days…
And what about users perception of security and even further why not privacy?
Until that day when Apple will go backwards, somewhat.
I don’t know much about Mac OS X. With that said does Mac OS X use ipchain/iptables like Linux does?
Yes, OS X uses ipfw. Unfortunately, just the way we can say that MS has tremendously advanced Windows security in Vista, we cannot say it’s more faster, full-featured out of the box (hint:lame apps) and stable/bug-free. Until SP1 maybe.
“One of these days!” I have been hearing this one for lots a days, years in fact.
But you are right, one of these days the Mac will have ONE virus. I doubt it can keep up with M$ thousands upon thousands of exploits.
Old saying: “people in GLASS houses should not throw stones.” With Apple’s excellent track record of security without a single major exploit, I am not worried. Vista on the other hand as improved as it is had exploits on day one. In fact M$ almost insists that you run anti-virus (they are happy to SELL you theirs). Vista tells you as XP does that you are at risk without anti-virus, until you install it. In 2007, don’t you think better security should be built-in. Most OS X users and Linux run no anti-virus at all. While Windows users pay and pay for protection that does not always work and slows their already bloated OS down further.
When the first OS X major exploit comes, you can say I told you so. And OS X users will say 100,000 to ONE!
@Stephen
Old saying “one single picture is worth 100.000 words”.
I hope it won’t be said “one single lack in a mac is worse than 100.000 Windows viruses”.
You also have to remember that if Microsoft tries to include too many apps with Windows that they’ll be slapped with yet another antitrust suit. I think that Apple will eventually hit the point where there development cycle is greatly slowed down by antitrust suits as well.