Apple likes to acclaim that Macs are not vulnerable to the same Internet security problems as PCs. While this is still true, Symantec has doubled the number of coding holes identified in Apple’s Safari browser, to 12 in the first half of 2006 compared to six for the previous half-year. In addition, Apple has increased from zero to five days its so-called window of exposure, the time between the identification and patching of a vulnerability.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser still has a bigger window of exposure and a greater total number of security holes. But Apple “is headed in the opposite direction” with respect to its browser’s vulnerability, says Dave Cole, director of Symantec’s Security Response team.
Internet Explorer’s window of exposure shrank from 25 days in the second half of 2005 to nine days in the first half of 2006 – a feat Microsoft achieved by issuing several “out-of-cycle” software patches, a departure from its normal procedure of releasing updates on so-called Patch Tuesday of each month. Vulnerabilities for IE increased to 38 from 25, Symantec reported.
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