
People shouldn't read anything into the fact that of the three laptops set up for
last week's 'PWN to OWN' hack challenge, the only one left standing was running Linux, said the security expert who oversaw the contest.
"There was just no interest in Ubuntu," said Terri Forslof, manager of security response at 3Com Corp.'s TippingPoint subsidiary, which put up the cash prizes awarded at the contest last week at CanSecWest.
"A contest such as this is not a measure of relative security between operating systems. It's not an accurate barometer."
Member since:
2005-07-06
one reason for the mac going first could be in the way the contest was set up.
day 1, only the os and base apps, with latest patches applied. only remote attacks allowed (open ports and that kind of stuff). here none got hacked.
day 2, user assisted attacks, like a email or web page being opened. here osx got hacked via safari.
day 3, popular apps and similar added to the day 2 requirements. here vista got hacked via flash.
the impression i have was that they could have taken ubuntu at day 3, but vista was a easier target. low hanging fruit and all that...