Latest from Microsoft suggest Vista is finally more secure than XP
While Vista has seen its fair share of disappointment when it comes to device and driver compatibility, Vista has managed to shine in the area of vulnerabilities and security overall. Microsoft’s latest security report suggests that Vista is now much more safe and secure than XP ever was. Believe it?
Network World is reporting that Microsoft’s latest round of security reports shows that the number of new vulnerabilities found in its software was lower in the first half of the year than the last half of 2007, with the Windows Vista OS proving more resistant to exploits than XP. Microsoft reported 77 vulnerabilities from January to June compared to 116 for the last six months of 2007, according to the company’s fifth “Security Intelligence Report.”
The most surprising data in the report was just how vulnerable XP has gotten since Vista has moved into the spotlight for Microsoft. In XP machines, Microsoft’s own software contained 42 percent of the vulnerabilities attacked, while 58 percent were in third-party software. For Vista machines, Microsoft’s software had 6 percent of the vulnerabilities attacked, with third-party software containing 94 percent of the flaws. The company has made huge strides in making its OS as secure as possible. New security technologies such as address space randomization have led to fewer successful attacks against Vista.
This good news comes on the heels of Vista making its exit, so hopefully this will bolster the image even further for the upcoming Windows 7 introduction. Vista has always been secure since its beginning, sometimes to secure for normal users, but it’s become ever-so-important recently, and Microsoft is taking it very seriously. Since XP really isn’t being supported by Microsoft like it once was, exploiters are making the best of the opportunity. The main aspects of Vista that appeal to hackers are those associated with ActiveX, but Microsoft has already fixed many of the problems. Hopefully, the news will stay good about Vista until its final departure.
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November 4th, 2008
Of course, this is true only if you keep the UAC on, which I can’t bear to do. Or maybe it’s still true.
November 7th, 2008
“Latest from Microsoft suggest Vista is finally more secure than XP”.
Meanwhile, groundbreaking research has conclusively proved that it is preferable to build a safe out of cardboard, rather than tissue paper.
November 8th, 2008
You can lock your house and thieves can still get in and take your stuff. Or lock your car and still it gets stolen. And many argue that the locked house/car suffers more damage than if you just left them unlocked.
So how much security is enough in an OS? UAC significantly locked things down, and all that has happened is MS gets bashed for it and pundits ad nauseum provide advice how to turn it (and other security features) off. Connect a computer to a network and allow insertion of removable media and you have an insecure machine that NO amount of security from the OS is going to be able to protect from every threat now or developed in the future.