Reality check time for Apple
“So you wanna join the big boys, Apple? Well, you better know what you’re getting yourself into.”
I’d imagine that’s, more or less, what security researchers were thinking when they got their hands on the Safari for Windows beta earlier this week. They promptly discovered a number of vulnerabilities that were pretty darn severe for only putting in a few hours of research time. Apple pushed out an update a few days later.
Apple loves to preach security (think those PC vs. Mac commercials) but the fact is, it’s never faced the scrutiny and interest it faces when it walks into the world of Windows.
For it to succeed, Apple needs to solve its own identity crisis. If Mac OS X and Safari want to become enterprise grade platforms and browsers, Apple better be ready for the vulnerabilities to start rolling in. Because you better believe there’s nothing more hackers embrace than a fresh challenge.
That means Apple needs to be willing to help folks manage and patch their systems. Dare I say they take a lesson from Microsoft? That’s right, the company everybody loves to hate might be able to help their supposed “hipper” neighbors to the south.
OS X has been out now for 6 or 7 years and to date remains a ‘fresh challenge’ for hackers. I guess they may be a bit frustrated.
Safari on Windows obviously raises more opportunities for the hacking community.
You may not have noticed but downloading Safari 3 on Windows also installs Apple Software Update. I’m taking a wild guess here, but I reckon this is how Apple will help folks manage and patch their systems. Further, I suspect the way Apple responds to these inevitable challenges will actually be a lesson to Microsoft in how to do things in the correct manner and in a timely fashion, particularly when IE7’s market share drops by 10-15%.