Apple Software has most Security Holes: Secunia

For years, we have been hearing that Microsoft's Windows had been ruling the user market but in the last two years, the number of Apple Mac users has rocketed enough to compete with the former. While Mac OS X loyalists love to accuse Windows as the honeypot for all malware and attacks, recent reports have just left us aghast. Apple has been rated as the company with most security vulnerabilities in its software in the first half of this year according to the report (PDF) by Secunia. Microsoft retains its third-place spot while Oracle is second on the list.



This does not necessarily mean that Apple's software is the most insecure in practice as the report does not consider the severity of the flaws. Many flaws are not in Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, but rather in softwares like Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes. Vendors like Adobe (with Flash and Adobe Reader) and Oracle (with Java) are similarly responsible for many of the flaws being reported.
 
 

The major trend being, security vulnerabilities have steadily started shifting from first-party to third party software. For example, according to the report, five years ago, there were more first-party flaws (in Windows and Microsoft's other software) than third-party. Since about 2007, the balance shifted towards third-party programs. This year, third-party flaws are predicted to outnumber first-party flaws by two-to-one. Updating third party software regularly is one way to protect your systems. However, we'd recommend not installing any unknown third party software at all.



The reason behind Apple being ranked so high could be the boost in Mac sales and more developers making software for the platform. Now Apple tries its best to control unreliable third party software but the end responsibility lies on users. Since Macs are the new 'in-thing' for many, they have grabbed attention of carrying software with quite a number of holes. As long as regular security updates are being released, we shouldn't face any annoyances.