Macs More Secure Than PCs, Says Sophos

Security vendor Sophos' latest findings on malicious software and its indication that Mac computers are more secure than heavily targeted Windows machines are significant, but perhaps even more notable is the fact that the company is saying so publicly.

"Mac can still safely say it's a safe alternative for computer users," the firm said with the release of its mid-year security report this week. With its statement, Sophos joins other security heavies, such as Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC), in criticism of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) systems' vulnerability to increasingly sophisticated and profit-motivated computer attackers.

This represents an industry seachange, according to IT-Harvest Founder and Chief Analyst Richard Stiennon, who has for years recommended alternative platforms such as Mac or Linux to avoid the plague of Windows security problems and patches.

"Companies are now able to criticize Microsoft openly," Stiennon told MacNewsWorld. "It's now becoming common knowledge that Macs are more secure, and that's a good thing."

Safer Software

With its mid-year security report, Sophos named the top ten malware threats for the first half of the year, with Sober-Z, Netsky-P and Zafi-B leading the list. However, the trend for the period was a decline in new viruses and worms, and continued growth of information theft via spyware, phishing, Trojans, "ransomware" and other malicious software attacks.

Sophos said while Mac OS X saw its first malware last February, attacks on the platform have not become widespread.

"Given the degree of management and maintenance required, and given the relatively low incidence of malware on Mac, it makes sense if you want a hands-off operating system that [Mac] may be more suited to that applicaiton," Sophos Senior Security Analyst Ron O'Brien told MacNewsWorld. "Clearly, the majority of malware written about in the report is geared toward Windows," he added of 180,000 pieces of malicious software.

Mac Versus Monoculture

Stiennon, who indicated Sophos is in a good position to assess security trends with its "insider" perspective, agreed that Macs avoid much of the Microsoft security woes because they are an alternative to the widely-used Windows platform.

"Mac doesn't participate in the monoculture that's Windows," Stiennon said. "It doesn't fall victim to it, either."

Stiennon said while security can sometimes work against a software platform by challenging attackers to defeat it, Mac remains largely uninteresting to criminal hackers.

"The bad guys are spending all of their time going where the money is," he said, referring to Windows.

Overlooking Open Source?

Although there is little debate that Windows is the most-targeted platform, the alternatives are not limited to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Mac, with many Linux distributions growing in usability and popularity.

O'Brien said that although Linux is not Sophos' recommendation for home users seeking simple solutions to Windows security dangers, Linux has the same security advantages as Macs for enterprise users. Sophos began covering Linux systems last spring.

"That was because we did see a medium and large enterprise migration from Microsoft operating systems to Linux operating systems specifically to reduce cost of overall ownership," O'Brien said.

IT-Harvest's Stiennon said although the task of downloading and setting up a Linux system remains daunting for most mainstream users, the open source operating system, particularly a distributions such as Ubuntu, is getting more user-friendly, and Linux should definitely be considered right along with Macs.

"Absolutely, if you're contemplating moving to a secure environment, or [want] just less security hassle, you may as well move to Linux," he said.