There's much rumbling going on in the internets this morning due to the story about the MacBook Air being the computer to be compromised (hacked) during the PWN2OWN contest being held at the CanSecWest conference this week.
The rules were fairly simple; the first to hack a machine would win the hacked computer and $20,000 if done via a network, $10,000 if done via the internet (via a browser), or $5,000 if accomplished via an installed program. The interesting sub-topic of this is that Vista's IE7 was not the first of the three machines being bombarded. The third computer is running Ubuntu.
I expect Vista's IE7 to fall soon, but the fact that Safari was the first, and possibly the easiest gateway to gain access has caused much gnashing of teeth and redirection of the facts of the case. In my reading, Apple lost this round; plain and simple. Have no fear, Vista will get it's share sooner or later.
What's interesting is the reaction from the pro-Apple crowd. The fanboys are not used to this kind of disappointment:
"...but has anyone even bothered to try the other two computers... [or] are the two other computers Dells and nobody wants them?" "Big deal." "...if the same interest and effort are put to exploit Vista... that would have already happened." "Let's face it: if the prize is the laptop you hack then everyone would be trying to hack the Mac: who the [expletive] wants the shame of walking away with a Dell under their arm?"
"...but has anyone even bothered to try the other two computers... [or] are the two other computers Dells and nobody wants them?"
"Big deal."
"...if the same interest and effort are put to exploit Vista... that would have already happened."
"Let's face it: if the prize is the laptop you hack then everyone would be trying to hack the Mac: who the [expletive] wants the shame of walking away with a Dell under their arm?"
Everyone needs to calm down and recognize what happened today: Holding all other things equal, modern operating systems are pretty secure (borne out by the fact that nobody took home the $20,000 prize) and on any day you can be hacked if you're not careful, regardless of your computer and operating system. In short, be careful on the internet. There are people who pay money to gain ownership of computers, and yours can be owned unless you take care, patch often, and keep anti-virus programs up to date.
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Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.