Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post

Circuit Breaker writes "A Washington Post article says Microsoft Windows is insecure by design. Quote: 'Between the Blaster worm and the Sobig virus, it's been a long two weeks for Windows users. But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep over these outbreaks -- just like in earlier "malware" epidemics. This is not a coincidence.'"

Comments

Apple and Linux systems are insecure too!

[coene]

I'd like to make one quick point. If a remote root exploit is found in Linux (like the RPC hole found a couple of months ago for Microsoft), the same type of Worm can happen.

The biggest (not only) difference, is that Microsoft (with Windows) has such a large market share, that it only makes sense to attack it. If Linux had 90% of the market, you know there would be virii exploiting it's holes. Same goes with Apple (OSX being based on FreeBSD has many of the same holes as Linux).

MS not at Fault

[linuxislandsucks]

okay before you flame me lets go back to unix history and 1980s

In the 1980s the knowledge of writing secure multi-user, mulit-taskign OSes were locked away in Unix commerical versions not for public examination by those studying Computer Science..

Guess where a large portion ofthose coders ended up at? MS Redmond headquarters..

While past 1990s MS does hold the blame for not being proactive on security ie redoing the kernel .. ..its not that plain blakc and white..

However, I do agree with WashingtonPost's suggestion MS should send a free copy of Longhorn to every registered Windows user worldwide as an effort towards security..

But in closing this set of issue also indicate why opensource OSes will always be more secure because the skills and knowledge is shared with all coding professionals!

Sharing begets Security!