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Charlie Miller: Macs lacking in security

Charlie Miller, the man that took down MacBooks in 2008 and 2009's Pwn2Own hacking competition shares his thoughts on OS security, Pwn2Own, and why Macs are lacking in security in an interview with Tom's Hardware:In neither case did I get root/admin access. That would have required additional vulnerabilities.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

Charlie Miller, the man that took down MacBooks in 2008 and 2009's Pwn2Own hacking competition shares his thoughts on OS security, Pwn2Own, and why Macs are lacking in security in an interview with Tom's Hardware:

In neither case did I get root/admin access. That would have required additional vulnerabilities. However, just running as the user is still very bad. I could have still watched keystrokes as you went to an online bank, read your calendar and address book, sent emails, etc. In real life, one or all of these things would have occurred.

When asked if he had to make a recommendation, Mac, PC, or Linux? Miller responded:

I'll leave Linux out of the equation since I know my grandma couldn't run it. Between Mac and PC, I'd say that Macs are less secure for the reasons we've discussed here (lack of anti-exploitation technologies) but are more safe because there simply isn't much malware out there. For now, I'd still recommend Macs for typical users as the odds of something targeting them are so low that they might go years without seeing any malware, even though if an attacker cared to target them it would be easier for them.

It's a good read.

Photo: Tom's Hardware

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