What's this? Apple warns of security hold in OS X.
 

http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/22/technology/applesec.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Apple reveals security hole

Computer maker says OS X system vulnerable to unspecified security breach.
May 22, 2004: 7:53 AM EDT

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc., long considered to be relatively immune to the security holes and viruses that plague longtime rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, said on Friday a security hole in its software leaves users' computers vulnerable to attack....

Figures that's dateline Seattle.

:-)

The exposure is 'theoretical' and it is about the fourth or fifth "revelation" in the last year. Most are incrediby obscure. The last one required you to download and open a disk image, and another, last year required you to allow someone else to sit down at your keyboard (D-oh). As usual, Apple had an OS upgrade available immediately.

I'm not saying it's perfect, but I, for one, appreciate an OS that is robust enough to run literally for years without crashing.

of course it isn't immune....its unix at its core.

But it is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE superior to any windoze distrubituion with regard to security out of the box, as well as the ability of the company to patch in a timely fashion.

btw, there have been a number of security updates for OSX over the past few years...but its just that Apple seems to patch them before they are exploited unlike the boyz in Redmond (where I hear security is job one - ha!)

Nothing against Apple, but I think its (mostly) that "the boyz in Redmond" are a bigger fatter target.

"Nothing against Apple, but I think its (mostly) that "the boyz in Redmond" are a bigger fatter target."

There's a lot of truth in that. The industry pundits speak of the danger of a 'monoculture' and one of the dangers is that there's a single, juicy target for 90%+ of the world's naughty nerds.

Microsoft put out a terrible product that 21 years later is still a security nightmare. Add to that corporate actions that put a lot of companies out of business, and you have an 'enemies list' that's longer than (you know who)'s.

The announcement of theoretical security issues in OSX will only increase as (if) their market share does.

Still, OSX is based on FreeBSD, which has been hammered out by a lot of folks over a long time...

I've noticed that Apple comes out with security patches quickly after a vulnerability is reported.

For example, the Safari vulnerability was reported this past week, I think, and yesterday Software Update downloaded a security patch for it.

The updating process is pretty painless too - I set Software Update to check daily and download in the background.

Apple actualyl cares about their customers.