How can viruses, vulnerabilities make the world safer?: Blogs - Securify This!

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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How can viruses, vulnerabilities make the world safer?

By Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia
February 23, 2006
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/securifythis/soa/How-can-viruses-vulnerabilities-make-the-world-safer-/0,139033343,139239847,00.htm

OS X security scares, a Linux worm and Microsoft bragging about security: so why is the world a safer place?

41%

The Securified Risk Meter is confused. As expected, in its first week it has had to deal with viruses, vulnerabilities and marketing clap trap.

However, it never expected Apple's OS X to be hit by the viruses (and a critical security hole), Linux to also be attacked by another virus and Microsoft to tell businesses to buy its products to make them safer.

Had we experienced a critical, unpatched Windows vulnerability then I'm sure the meter would have shot up and be eyeing the danger zone. The same may have happened if the OS X virus had exploited a vulnerability in the platform instead of relying on user interaction to spread.

But as it stands, for all the excitement, not much seems to have changed.

OS X still hasn't been attacked by a 'serious' virus and the recent scare may actually help the Mac community (which includes myself) to wake up to the fact that they are not immune to attack.

For this reason the world seems to be a slightly safer place. The Securified Risk Meter recognises this and falls to 41 percent.