Contributed by Staff August 5, 2005 1:26 AM

A commentary about the myth of Mac OS X's "security by obscurity" advantage has been on the list of items to publish for some time now. The recent news of Microsoft Vista being the benefactor of a proof of concept that its "yet to be delivered" OS can already be exploited is the perfect nudge to published.

At first it may seem logical to suggest that Apple's OS skims by unnoticed since it's not a significant player in the operating system field. But there are at least two issues with this notion. First, it is becoming more and more recognized that market share--the ever-so loved figure spouted by Windows apologists, is not the real important figure, since install base is far more significant. Finally, Apple's far larger install base figure is being published which of course makes the security-by-obscurity argument lose value.

Secondly, it could be said that Mac users often gloat about their ability to use their computers worry free and surf the World-wide Web without hesitation, all without the "protection" from adware, spyware, viruses (virii?), trojans, worms, et cetera, bragging. So then, why wouldn't someone jump at the chance to get all the notoriety in the world by being the first one to deliver malware to a Mac system?

And now, a third argument against the security-by-obscurity fantasy can be hoisted. Certainly, there must be more Macs "in the wild" than beta copies of Vista, even if market share over install base is considered. For those that promote the idea that Mac systems get a pass because it's not worth the bother to crack them, then how is it worth the bother to crack an even lesser used system? Especially, when considering the fact that the newly announced exploits are using new technology introduced with the Vista beta. Meaning that it's not by way of a hole introduced by this new system that opens up a vulnerability that's just been waiting. Rather, these new exploits had to be discovered and taken advantage of on a little-used system and in an extremely short period of time.

Still, there will be those who refuse to think otherwise, and that's fine. Vista is supposed to be release in a bit more than a year. Feel free to perpetuate malware when it comes out.


© 2005 Kaomso