W ired News has an interesting report from Leander Kahney about security and Mac OS X. Centered around the recent brouhaha over a critical flaw found in Mac OS X, the report suggests that Appleis overall track record on security is very good. Included in the report are some comments from an Apple exec directly addressing the latest security flap, something that is very unusual for the company. From the article:
Ken Bereskin, Appleis director of Mac OS X product marketing, said that Apple was stung by recent criticism that the company didnit communicate in detail about security updates. He admitted descriptions of patches downloaded automatically in OS Xis Software Update mechanism tended to be simplistic.
"We think it was very, very valid feedback that we received from customers," Bereskin said. "Weive had a wealth of information, but people havenit known it existed." Detailed information is available at the companyis security Web site, and even some security companies arenit aware of it, Bereskin said.
Starting with the latest security update, Apple now includes a link to its security Web site, Bereskin said.
"Weive actually acted on that feedback," he said. "I think that is an example that very much we want to refine our process."
Bereskin added, "In general, we feel weive been approaching security in a really smart way. Nothing can be perfect. I think everybody acknowledges that, but weire trying to make it as safe and trustworthy for our customers as possible."
Thereis much more information in the full article, including comments from analysts that are largely positive, and some anecdotal information from a US Senatoris office. We recommend it as an interesting read.