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Infamous hacker applauds the security of Microsoft software; less than pleased with Apple and Adobe offerings
Marc Maiffret, despite having a name that sounds uncomfortably French in origin, is one of the founding members of a special and elite club: he's a turncoat hacker. Once an infamous black hat, he's now the chief security architect for leading malware protection system developer FireEye. His list of notable accomplishments is many, but they will all be shadowed by his latest statement: Microsoft software is more secure than Apple's.In a frank and interesting interview over on CNET, Maiffret spends a lot of time discussing how Microsoft has really shaped up in terms of producing secure software. Maiffret says that Apple is only now looking at improving its code review and auditing procedures -- something Microsoft has done well for a long time now.
Maiffret also notes that desktop apps are now the biggest threat to our security -- apps like Adobe's Creative Suite. There isn't a tried-and-test patching process for desktop apps: if a security hole is found in Flash or Photoshop it can be a long time until it's patched.
Meanwhile, it seems Apple's primary defense is still security through obscurity: "We've only seen a scratching of the surface as far as Apple vulnerabilities because nobody cares to find them." Ironically, Apple continues to claim that its OS X is more secure than Windows -- a very dangerous act, according to Maiffret: "... They try to market themselves as more secure than the PC, that you don't have to worry about viruses. Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability. If they were taking it seriously, they wouldn't claim to be more secure than Microsoft because they are very much not."
So, good news, Windows users -- you might not be aware that you're using the more secure operating system... but you very much are!
Comments
28
Subscribe to commentsArnieApr 16th 2010 10:43AM
There is only one thing which can give you reasonable security and that is common sense in your day to day usage of your computer.
AbdoApr 16th 2010 10:52AM
"despite having a name that sounds uncomfortably French in origin, is one of the founding members of a special and elite club: he's a turncoat hacker"
How is being French relevant to being a hacker?
Sebastian AnthonyApr 16th 2010 10:53AM
It's not.
Marc C.Apr 16th 2010 12:36PM
So what was the reasoning for your comments Sebastian? If not tying it to hacking what is the meaning?
Sebastian AnthonyApr 16th 2010 12:37PM
Another Marc!
I was merely trolling. *hangs head*
nkaApr 19th 2010 1:55PM
Why is being French uncomfortable? The freedom fry culture is so 2000's.
DaveApr 16th 2010 10:53AM
And not running IE6
MaeverApr 16th 2010 11:55AM
"despite having a name that sounds uncomfortably French in origin"
Seriously ? I know you're not the most objective of writers but did your intro have that much of a gap to fill to actually write this ? Please try to keep it as professional as possible, thanks.
RobinApr 17th 2010 2:53PM
I am not uncomfortable either. to be honest, my mind is not accepting it.
xyglyxApr 16th 2010 12:49PM
Calm down you guys he was probably just parodying ignorant Americans' automatic suspicion of all things French. Educated Americans love the French!
CowmanApr 16th 2010 1:08PM
Ummmmm, duhhhhhhh..... that Windows is more secure than a Mac, i've even done many tests for my self.
also he's wearing eyeliner
Android underlingApr 16th 2010 1:10PM
Yes, this isnt exactly surprising. Windows has some very complex security, its just that it has such a large quantity of people trying to take advantage of it, that it sometimes looks more vulnerable then apple.
kojo87Apr 17th 2010 3:30AM
while this is obvious to you and me you would be surprised as to how many people blindly believe Apple's claims. i shared this on Facebook mainly to piss off my Apple obsessed friends. it did. a lot.
Sebastian AnthonyApr 17th 2010 6:29AM
You're such a troll.
penguendedektifApr 16th 2010 2:56PM
I think this statement is very misleading. He is talking about both systems' vulnerabilities for hacking. But for an average user, vulnerabilities for viruses are much more important. Most of us are using wireless modems or routers with built-in firewalls. I used Windows (95-98-XP-7) all my computer using life (13 years) and not once my system was hacked by some 14-year-old. But without a regularly updated anti-virus software, no matter what sort of windows we use, we all now what happens. I'm not even gonna mention Internet Explorer. I've started using an Apple next to my PC two weeks ago and I can testify how a system gains speed by not running an anti-virus software. I also have a low-end ultra portable with windows 7, whenever I turn my system on, it virtually locks me out for at least 4-5 minutes for system and anti-virus update checks (damn that svchost). I really started to find this unbearable. Even though I'm not an apple fanboy and also find osx's some aspects very annoying, almost virus-free environment is something to love...
coolaaron88Apr 16th 2010 3:12PM
And tell me how in 2010 an anti virus is slowing down the speed of your computer. Thats a horrible reason to not have it on your computer. In the age of dual and quad core, or 2Gb-6GB of ram you have no excuse.
"I also have a low-end ultra portable with windows 7, whenever I turn my system on, it virtually locks me out for at least 4-5 minutes for system and anti-virus update checks"
Oh really? I have Comodo Firewall (free), Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and Avast 5.0 (free) and when I turn on my Windows 7 Laptop, everything loads up just fine and it does all its scanning and updates in the background and I dont skip a beat, and I have 4GB of ram on my machine.
penguendedektifApr 16th 2010 3:30PM
>And tell me how in 2010 an anti virus is slowing down the speed of your >computer. Thats a horrible reason to not have it on your computer. In the age >of dual and quad core, or 2Gb-6GB of ram you have no excuse.
And what part of "low-end portable" should I explain? It's a celeron 743 with 2gb's of ram and a low-speed hdd. As an obsessive user I use a cpu monitor constantly and I'm sick of seeing it in 30s or 40s (%) whenever the OS or AV please so. Of course I don't have the same problem in my PhenomIIX4 but not every system is that strong.
And as a reply to your question please do answer that how in 2010 we are still in need of resource consuming anti-virus software for windows while the other two major OSs don't have that problem?
coolaaron88Apr 16th 2010 3:45PM
"how in 2010 we are still in need of resource consuming anti-virus software for windows while the other two major OSs don't have that problem?"
Resource consuming?
Im running Avast and it consumes 3k or resources.
Anti Virus exists for Mac and Linux so please explain to me this "resource" hog issue"
Also you want to talk about resource hog? Have you tried Firefox 3.6?
AemonyApr 16th 2010 3:46PM
You mean like my Windows computer since ages past? Sure, occasionally I install a free AV application and does some scanning after viruses but alas, it all comes up with nothing. I haven't had a permanent AV in years.
I'm by no means an average computer user but the only times I'm getting infected by viruses on my Windows computer is when I'm out cruising the web for a specific purpose which includes browsing through quite dangerously websites. The fact that they are so obvious also makes me a bit sad. Who would think that the only way I can get infected by viruses is by searching for them by my own accord.
penguendedektifApr 16th 2010 3:54PM
well as I've said I'm obsessive about 0% idle computing and minimum memory usage, so after one day of trying 3.6, I switched back to firefox 3.5 :)
All I'm saying is unless you are dealing with sensitive information (i.e. government stuff or commercial secrets), strength against viruses are much more important than strength against hacks in my opinion. And in this context, OSX and Linux are more reliable than good old Windows...