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Hacker: Microsoft more secure than Apple

A professional computer hacker has claimed that Microsoft computers are harder to manipulate with malware than Apple products. Marc Maiffret, chief security architect at anti-malware firm FireEye, made the comments in an interview with technology review website CNet, and the claims will worry Mac users, many of whom buy Apple products because they claim to be safer than PCs.

“Microsoft do more to secure their software than anyone else,” said Maiffret in the interview which was published on April 15th. “They’re the model for how to do it. They’re not perfect; there’s room for improvement. But they are definitely doing more than anybody else in the industry.”

Maiffret should know better than most – from the time when he had his first computer, he became interested in finding holes in software security, and was a notorious hacker by the time he was seventeen. It was only after a brush with the law that he decided to use his knowledge for good rather than ‘evil’, and with his knowledge of hacking, his is a voice Apple may have to take seriously as they seek to tighten user security with the release of the iPad.

On Apple, Maiffret said “It's even a little scarier with them because they try to market themselves as more secure than the PC, that you don't have to worry about viruses, etc. Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability. If they were taking it seriously, they wouldn't claim to be more secure than Microsoft because they are very much not.”

So if you’re in the market for a new machine and are fooled into assuming Apple machines are safer and more secure, you may want to think twice.