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[mishlert]

Have you heard that if you'll just use some operating system other than Windows, you'll be safe? Do you think of security as something you only need to worry about when running your computer, but not other digital devices? At a recent cyber-security conference sponsored by the Department of Defense, the focus was on threats posed by Linux, Macintosh OS X, iPods and Xboxes.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1910371,00.asp

[dbee]

This is all M$ sponsored propaganda

No, but seriously it's good that the government cover all bases when it comes to security platforms. But the big issue here is with the overall design of these systems.

M$ systems are alot more prone to security break-ins for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that nearly every program in M$ runs as root. Many of these programs contain services which are set running out of the box. Crackers can craft buffer overflows to run code on M$ systems and call up a root shell. Basically this gives the whole game away as far as security for M$ is concerned.

Also, there is the whole IE thing to contend with. There are lots of 0-day undiscovered flaws in the IE program which are open invitations for crackers and malware writers to run code on your computer when you're not looking

There are other issues as well, such as weak permissions on files and folders. Also the closed-source philosophy is counter-productive security-wise IMO. If a developer discovers a flaw in UNIX/BSD, then can post an exploit on bugtraq and get kudo's from the community. It'll even look good on their CV. Try to do that with a windows system though and you'll end up locked in a cell with an inmate called bubba for a few years.

But probably the largest issue is with inexperienced and disinterested users running old unpatched systems and not keeping up with service packs blah, blah, blah ...