Study: Safest OS isn't Windows--or Linux - huh ?

[mc0282]

NOTE: i am not trolling.. if my post is shitty let me know i will delete the information..
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5162348.html
"According to the study, the most secure OS turned out to be BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) and Mac OS X. mi2g said its study focused on "overt digital attacks" and did not include other methods of intrusion such as viruses and worms."


well had my jaw drop linux is not safe... but mac os safe ?  and bsd ? man

[ February 23, 2004: Message edited by: mc0282 ]

[WMD]

BSD (in particular, OpenBSD) was always most secure.  (OSX is based off BSD)

Not to mention, in the heated debate on this at Slashdot, there was general agreement that the company that produced the report is a Microslave(TM).  

[M51DPS]

quote:Originally posted by WMD:
OSX is based off BSD

I get the feeling that Mac OS X is only considered the safest with BSD because there is a BSD subsystem . . .

[WMD]

quote:Originally posted by M51DPS:


I get the feeling that Mac OS X is only considered the safest with BSD because there is a BSD subsystem . . .

Well if that's all there is, then Apple is making a bigger deal out of it then they need to.

[Calum]

they always do. and i have often heard that OpenBSD is the most secure system, of course it depends what is installed on it and what it's doing i should think...

[Refalm]

You know why Linux is attacked so much? Back in 1999, many companies wanted Linux.
So they hired UNIX people to install in on them. Problem is, they didn't talk to those UNIX people again, hired some shithead for networking with MCSE, saw that Linux was working fine, and was affraid to touch it, because otherwise, they had a problem with their boss. Plus, it was working just fine.

Linux needs to be updated at least once a month, and that's not even enough when you're running some kind of web server on it.
So all those Linux configurations "working fine" are an easy target for crackers.

[flap]

quote:Linux needs to be updated at least once a month

Why do you say that?

[restin256]

You can get debian stable, which can run for years at a time without updates.

Uh.. <dipshit mode> They probably only didn't include Linux because there's so many distrobutions.. so THERE.</dipshit mode>

[TheQuirk]

quote:Originally posted by restin256:
You can get debian stable, which can run for years at a time without updates.

What about security holes found after the release, big boy?

[restin256]

I never said secure.. uh, little boy?

[TheQuirk]

Because it's direct reference to the topic, champ.

 

quote:Linux needs to be updated at least once a month, and that's not even enough when you're running some kind of web server on it.
So all those Linux configurations "working fine" are an easy target for crackers.

 

quote:You can get debian stable, which can run for years at a time without updates.

[restin256]

Whoops.

[Pantso]

Mac OS X is a lot more complicated system. Thus one cannot say that it is simply "based on BSD". For more information you can read the following excellent and recently slashdotted article:

http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/

OpenBSD on the other hand is as far as I am concerned the most secure Operating system out ther right now. Why? Simply because it includes advanced cryptographic features never before seen in an OS. That fact alone would make it illegal to deploy in the US, therefore it is being developed in Canada.

The Linuces are also very secure systems, as long as one knows how to set them up properly, ie disable some services one does not need during startup, set up iptables properly and foremostly never run the system as the root or superuser.

These measures should be enough for every home user, with the addition that one should update one's system as frequently as possible.

[hm_murdock]

Mac OS X is actually "based on" MACH. However, the bits that make it OS X could just as easily run on NT, or something else.

Mac OS X, however runs atop Darwin, which is a BSD-derived OS powered by MACH.

[bill_ford]

I can get a Windows System to run very secure. Only problem is when they are secure there about as handy as an expensive heater, because thats all they can do.

We recently migrated all our MSSQL stuff across to the UNIX office (MySQL now I think). Running much more secure now, and faster.