During the 2000s, Apple ran a hugely successful advertising campaign for its line of Macintosh desktop computers. The ads poked fun at some of the perceived bugbears of the Windows-based PCs of the era compared to the Mac.
One recurring theme of these ads was the greater vulnerability of Microsoft’s PCs to viruses.
Actually, Windows is much-much harder to hack, compared to Linux. But you probably meant 'to hack' as in 'to violate' and not as in 'to playfully/cleverly fiddle with their internals". Command + Shift + 4 and you’ll get a crosshair that you can drag with your mouse to capture exactly what you want. Command + Shift + 4 at the same time and then let them go, then hit the Spacebar. Now you can click on any window you want and take a shot of that entire window, shadow included. The security researcher who walked away with US$10,000 last week by hacking a MacBook Air in less than two minutes said he chose to attack Apple's operating system for one simple reason. 'It was the easiest one of the three,' said Charlie Miller, a principal analyst with Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a US-based security consultancy.
The perception that Macs are safer to use than PCs persists in some quarters to this day. But is it the case that Apple’s latest OS X Yosemite is more secure than the newly-released Windows 10 from Microsoft?
Security by obscurity
Whatever the technical vulnerabilities of the two systems, the historical lack of malware targeting Apple systems was at least in part due to Apple’s own lack of market share.
Definitive statistics for the market share of operating systems are hard to come by, but one useful estimate is available from the server traffic records of Wikimedia (the non-profit organisation that runs Wikipedia).
In April 2009 (the earliest date from which records are readily available) nearly 90% of traffic came from computers running Windows, compared to only 6% for Mac. By July 2015 Windows had dropped to 41.7% and Mac to 5.4%. Most of the rest now comes from smartphones and tablets running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
So back in 2009, Windows represented a far larger target than Mac for profit-seeking virus and malware authors. While that is still the case today, the relative payoffs have changed substantially. Mac users tend to be wealthier than average and are likely to be more heavily concentrated in wealthier developed countries, which may attract malware authors to Macs.
Hardening up
Macs Are Easier To Hack Csgo
Over the years both Microsoft and Apple have taken many measures to reduce the risks from malware. Both devote considerable time and resources to removing security-related faults in their own software and preventing the introduction of new ones.
Microsoft has disclosed information about its Security Development Lifecycle, both to encourage confidence and to promote the development of more secure software across the industry. Apple is much less forthcoming about the specifics of its internal security efforts.
However, security bugs are still being discovered in released versions of both OS X and Windows on a regular basis. What has changed for the better is the ease and speed with which security fixes to software are distributed and installed.
Microsoft’s policy relating to the disclosure of security flaws says it will publicly reveal a vulnerability, even without a fix, if it becomes aware the vulnerability is being exploited. Apple’s policy is to never comment on security faults until they have been fixed.
Both companies have also introduced a number of features that make it harder for bugs to be exploited to allow attackers to take control of systems.
Perhaps the biggest change to the security of the two major desktop operating systems is through the combination of app stores, signed applications and “sandboxing”. In combination, these features go a long way to make sure that the only software running on OS X or Windows is:
- written by an identifiable developer
- audited by Microsoft or Apple before being available from their app store
- “sandboxed” so that it can only perform the actions it legitimately needs to, rather than having full access to everything on the system.
Aside from the security implications, app stores have commercial implications. Only applications approved by Apple or Microsoft can be sold through them, and those companies take a cut of any sales.
These walled gardens are of concern if you believe (as I do) in the “freedom to tinker”. But they do significantly reduce both the potential for malware to make its way onto systems, and the harm such malware can do if they somehow get through.
The technical details of the Windows and the OS X app stores and sandboxing models are slightly different to each other, although the end results are reasonably similar.
But there is a straightforward way to bypass these protections: many users need the ability to run their older applications, so both operating systems provide mechanisms to install and run non-sandboxed code.
Successful attacks on non-sandboxed applications leave the rest of the user’s computer vulnerable. The existence of a mechanism to install and run any program downloaded from the internet also gives malware authors a “social engineering” attack – in a nutshell, tricking users into running downloaded software that contains malware.
Windows 10 has a new sandboxing model for corporate applications called Device Guard that will make it harder for unauthorised applications to be executed.
It is currently restricted to the Enterprise version of Windows 10 because its mechanisms for approving older applications to run are too unwieldy for home users. But, over time, some version of the Device Guard system will likely filter down to the home editions of Windows, making life more difficult for malware authors.
The verdict
So which is the safer operating system to use? For what it’s worth, I use both Windows and OS X (as well as Linux, Android and occasionally iOS), and I see no particular reason to choose between them on security grounds. I share the concerns of David Glance, writing on The Conversation, about Windows 10’s privacy policies, but that’s not strictly a security issue.
All operating systems are vulnerable to hackers, but the risks can be reduced if you adopt basic computer security measures. These include installing anti-malware software and installing operating system and application security updates promptly.
And there are other risks you face regardless of the operating system you choose. Web browsers and plugins, other applications and the security practices of the websites that you visit are agnostic to whether you’re on Windows or Mac.
Two hackers participating in the annual Pwn2own Security Conference managed to hack a MacBook Pro last Wednesday. First, they targeted Safari, then they gained access to Mac OS, and finally, they were able to hijack their way into the MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
It has been almost one year since the Apple company announced the release of their brand new feature for the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. This tool has the same qualities than the last panel bar, only that now it has the has tactile technology, like most of the current mobile devices in the world.
The Touch Bar allows the user the possibility to interact with all the applications within the laptop, granting more options concerning the display and functionality of each one of the apps. Besides that innovative experience, the Touch Bar also represents a brand new target for hackers to attack.
Are Macs Harder To Hack
Samuel Groß and Niklas Baumstar, duo team of hackers, targeted Safari and the Touch Bar of the MacBook in the Pwn2own security conference, and last Wednesday, they successfully hacked one device.
What could this mean for Apple: Easy to hack devices?
After both Groß and Baumstar had finished their hacking procedures, they did not perform anything too harmful to the device. They only put a saluting message announcing their triumph. However, if a different hacker manages to do it, the consequences may be different.
Many types of Malware could harm Mac users in a variety of ways. The most common of them is the one that keeps the person locked out from their personal information (files, photos, documents, etc.).
Macs Are Easier To Hack League Of Legends
Back in February, there was a report of a Mac ransomware that was oriented to the stealing of all the passwords, PIN codes and security codes from a person’s laptop, through an Adobe Flash Player update. However, the server the hackers used was taken down by digital authorities.
According to preliminary summaries from the Canadian Pwn2own conference, the hacking of the MacBook Pro device was “worryingly easy,” as it was reported by Forbes this Sunday. The description of the hack showed how both hackers attacked Safari to gain further access to Mac OS and then took advantage of that access to enter to the Touch Bar internal configuration system.
However, other sources explain that is not as easy as it seems, as not only Groß and Baumstar but all hackers have to do a lot of previous work and perform consecutive exploits in 5 distinct bugs to achieve the attack.
There is a common misconception regarding the Pwn2own conference and what its achievements mean. The mistakes found in a targeted systems usually are found by large teams that work for several days without resting and are the products of un-reported software bugs.
The whole point of events like the one held in Vancouver this month is for technology companies, like Apple, in this case, to be aware of which mistakes are present in the configuration of their systems and then correct the errors and avoid future hacks.
Other targeted systems on the conference were Adobe Flash Player, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Ubuntu, with participants being able to hack their way into them in most cases. The hacker team that wins the conference receives a $1 million prize as well as the “Master of Pwn” crown title.
Are Macs Easy To Hack
Source: Forbes