Firefox, Malware, and a False Sense of Security

Firefox users are always crowing about insecure IE is; Firefox, they say, is impregnable - it doesn't suffer from spyware or other malware. The same goes for the Linux & Apple crowd (OSX is built on top of Linux).

Apparently, Firefox sypware is on the way, either this year or next, depending on which security expert you talk to. The reason for this is, apparently Firefox is just as vulnerable to malware as IE, it's just that IE is more popular than other browsers, so it's not worth the malware-writers' time to create exploits... yet.

Meanwhile, Apple has had to issue patches to OSX... some for vulnerabilites that have been in Linux for some time; and some researchers are claiming that Windows is more secure than Linux:

Their criteria included the number of reported vulnerabilities and their severity, as well as the number of patches issued and days of risk — the period from when a vulnerability is first reported to when a patch is issued. On average, the Windows setup had just over 30 days of risk versus 71 days for the Red Hat setup, their study found.

Unfortunately, a myth has been created that only MS platforms are insecure and that everything else is invulnerable. The truth of the matter is, MS products are more popular, and so the virus writers tend to be on MS platforms, or are looking to get their virus on as many desktops as possible. Users of other platforms may well be labouring under a false sense of security...