May 10, 2005

Security: Microsoft Is Unfairly Targeted

Over the years I have joined in the bashing of Microsoft for being sloppy with coding, pushing out software that was not secure and other causes of online (and even offline) security holes and headaches.

However, it appears that we were wrong. Mozilla's Firefox web browser (competing with Microsoft Internet Explorer) is being targeted by hackers and "virus" writers. Mozilla, like Microsoft, is also being forced to issue patches to fix vulnerabilities.

What does this mean?

Should we now start slamming Firefox for being slopping with coding and etc. No. We should also stop bashing Microsoft and consider if indeed many of the security holes over the years are in fact a simply result of two things 1) no one is perfect so programming code will have security holes - it's just a matter of finding them and then fixing them 2) the more popular something is the bigger a target it is (as in the recent trend of Ipod thefts).

Many companies have touted, "Our product is more secure than Microsoft's". But maybe that's really not the case. Maybe their product is MUCH LESS well known than Microsoft's - hence less of a concentrated target for hackers.

News Factor writes Two critical vulnerabilities have been found in Firefox Latest News about Firefox that, together, could allow hackers to hijack a computer by running malicious code through the open-source Web browser.

The Mozilla Foundation, parent of Firefox, said the JavaScript vulnerabilities could be exploited to cause a browser frame to navigate back to a previous Web address, enabling an attacker to inject script into any site and to steal cookies or sensitive data from that site -- or to perform actions unauthorized by the user.

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