MacBook hacker: Vista more secure than OS X

Remember Dino Dai Zovi? If not, here's a brief recap: the security researcher helped software engineer Shane Macaulay hack a MacBook in 9 hours flat for a contest, netted a cool $10,000 for the discovery of the exploit and then followed up his big win by taking a lap on the interview circuit. Meanwhile, the rest of us discovered that the exploit actually took advantage of a Quicktime bug and could have ramifications for even Windows users. Needless to say, this guy knows a thing or two about OS X and security. So when Dai Zovi claims that Vista is more secure than OS X, it's not so easy to dismiss. "I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4," Dai Zovi said. "It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies." Mac users often like to pat themselves on the back for their OS's robust security but many Windows fans have long claimed that OS X only seems secure because so few exploits are written for the operating system. Regardless of whose side you're on, Dai Zovi does have a few security tips for OS X users, so head on over and see what he has to say.

For the full interview:
- see this MacWorld article