One Mac hack bounty claimed, one to go

Mitcho --

a) I'm a blogger, not a journalist; I'm sorry you don't approve of my failure to cite sources, but that line about XP and Vista was something we bloggers call "opinion & hyperbole."

b) http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+exploit

c) The reason for the contest in the first place was to gain publicity and point out security weaknesses in the Mac platform. There's no publicity boost for doing the same on Windows because there's nothing special or unusual about a Windows exploit; they are tragically common.

It may be tired and hackneyed to mention Windows security in the same breath as Mac OS X security, but these are the top two consumer platforms and it's the only comparison in town. If Microsoft's increased investment in security pays off and malware becomes extinct on that platform -- or if there's parity between Mac and Windows risk profiles -- we'll cover that too.

What surprised me in reading up on the attack is that this is supposedly a Firefox vulnerability too.

"Where was the $10,000 bounty for a similar takeover of a Windows XP or Vista stock patched configuration? It wouldn't have taken a day, that much is certain."

What is your source for this? An identical competition was not set up for Vista, so we wouldn't know. And even if you have a good reason to say this, you've got to cite your source--this is just poor journalism.

These are the kinds of comments that get us loyal Mac users blanketed as idolaters. Michael Rose, I'm very disappointed.

I emailed you guys about the icon used for the article, please read it ;)

Anyway, I did some commenting on digg about this. I am quite unsatisfied with the quality that goes into these 'hackathons' lately. I find it a good example of the security of a Mac. Although details are sparse, I hope this gets some documentation soon.

oh no! The precious Mac OS X image is being tainted, throw out some irrelevent comment about Windows to make us all feel better.

Dont get me wrong, Mac OS X is a better OS all around, but does anyone really believe any OS is perfect. With greater market share and popularity comes greater interest in exploit. I predict this is only the beginning.

Welcome to the social.

Please show me where it says "...these machines were patched with Thursday's update prior to the challenge."

All I can find in the article is where it says "...the latest security patches have been applied." Whatever that means.

In any case I'm really glad I rarely if ever use Safari.

$10,000 + MacBook Pro.. Wow!

Apple Store is down!

Dude! Check this out: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore

A few simple preventative steps can go a long way.

It's best to not run as admin for your everyday user, because you can almost always authenticate when you actually need admin privileges. The greater your user level, the greater potential for damage caused by malicious code.

Definitely turn off automatic opening of "safe" downloaded files in your browser preferences, whichever browser you use.