Ditch Windows for Mac says Sophos

Stan Beer
Thursday, 06 July 2006 08:26

Business IT - Security

Three years from now, most home computers may be Apple Mac OSX boxes rather than Windows PCs. A fanciful thought, you say? Not if most home users were to take the advice of security vendor Sophos.

The latest Sophos Security Threat Management Report reveals that new Trojans now outweigh viruses and worms by 4:1 as organised cyber criminals turn their attention to stealing information and money.

A senior technology consultant of the UK-based email security specialist believes the malware threat to Windows PC users has spiralled so far out of control that it's time for home users to consider making a switch to Macs.

"The continuing rise of malware will concern many - the criminals responsible are obviously making money from their code, otherwise they'd give up the game," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"It's more vital than ever that all organisations use an integrated security solution to protect against intrusion, as well as blocking known and unknown malware. On top of this, hackers seem happy to primarily target Windows users and not spread their wings to other platforms. It seems likely that Macs will continue to be the safer place for computer users for some time to come - something that home users may wish to consider if they're deliberating about the next computer they should purchase."

According to the head of technology Sophos Asia Pacific, any suggestion that Sophos is targeting Windows with a negative campaign because Microsoft now competes in the security space with its own products is wrong.

"That's absolute rot," he told iTWire. "We've been suggesting for ages that people who are worried about those things and want that sort of protection in their browser and email client can consider add on tools or they can consider something like Firefox or Thunderbird., which have had those features built in. So why wouldn't be pleased that Microsoft have put the same sort of functionality and feature set into their own browser and home user email client?"

That said, this is the first time to our knowledge that a major security vendor has advised an entire market segment to switch from the dominant home computer platform to its major competitor. We'll be talking to Clulely later today to find out why he doesn't believe the release of the ostensibly far more secure Windows Vista will solve the problem for home users.