14 DAY TRIAL // Just as Apple keeps advancing the world's most advanced operating system, so does Microsoft jump from one most secure Windows Operating system to another? That doesn't make sense? Well you would have to go back in time all the way to the release of the second service pack for Windows XP. Well not actually in time, just go to this page where a Windows XP SP2 overview has been published on August 4, 2004. If you just browse through you'll come across this: "When you install SP2 on your Windows XP-based PC, you can feel confident that you're running the most secure Windows operating system available."
Over two years later, Microsoft's Stephen Toulouse, senior program manager for the Trustworthy Computing Group said that "In following the feedback from our customers that Windows Vista should dramatically increase the security of the computing experience, we recognized that existing security solution providers were a key resource in helping to ensure not only that Windows Vista is the most secure Windows version to date, but to help maintain the user choice in selecting security solutions that best meet their needs."
"While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date," stated a member of the Microsoft Security Research Center discussing the issue related to Client Server Run-Time Subsystem.
Symantec has revealed that driver signing, SafeSEH, DEP, pointer obfuscation, PatchGuard (Windows XP x64), UAC, code signing, Windows Defender, Socket ACLs, and Windows Update, among the security technologies in Windows Vista are in fact nothing new. "In fact, most are derived from the groundwork originally laid by open source operating systems such as Linux and OpenBSD, the PaX and Stackguard projects, as well as numerous academic publications.8,9 The majority of these technologies first appeared in Windows XP SP2," a Symantec representative said.
However, Symantec did acknowledge the fact that Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 have reduced the number of attacks focused on the core operating system components, and as such, even though Windows Vista does not represent a security revolution but only an evolution, it is in fact the most secure Windows operating system available.