Never mention Windows and security in the same breath

Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 02 June 2010 13:12

Opinion and Analysis

If I had a dollar for every time Microsoft was forced to defend the abysmal security of its Windows operating system, I would probably be lying on a beach in the Bahamas and sipping a cocktail right now, with my financial future secured.

The latest defence, from Windows communications manager Brandon LeBlanc, has as many holes as Windows does in its security armoury.

As my colleague Jake Widman reported earlier today, LeBlanc took issue with a story stating that Google was moving its internal workstations away from Windows to OSX and GNU/Linux due to Windows' poor security.

In his response, LeBlanc talks of security issues with the Mac and Google too. That isn't the point - no system or company is perfect.

We are talking here about the relative security of various operating systems - and Windows is, without any doubt, the worst. Put it up against OpenBSD, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, OpenSolaris, or any other, Windows comes out last when it comes to security.

Remember we are talking about an operating system that was first released in 1985. That release was a real dog but in the intervening period, some progress has been made. However, the culture that it comes from is responsible for its security record - Windows was never built to be secure and building it again from scratch would take too much time.

That's why there is one day every month called Patch Tuesday - and it's only in Redmond that this day is observed. No other company needs to have such a day set aside every month for the simple reason that it has a much smaller security problem with which to deal.