The sky is falling, again...

Oct 31, 2007 17:39 GMT  ·  By

It didn't take long for the security experts to open the FUD gates and start warning about just how horribly insecure OS X is, and how far Apple has to go before it catches up to Microsoft. Meanwhile, in the real world, Mac users are as safe as they ever were.

The big outcry is over the firewall that is built into OS X, which Apple has turned off by default. Furthermore, even when turned on, and set up with the most restrictive settings, it will allow access to system services from the Internet. All this might sound like a big deal, in fact, it seems downright bad, unless you actually know what is going on.

In the case of the firewall being turned off by default, this is huge non-issue. There is a very precise reason why Leopard, like all versions of OS X before it, ships with the firewall turned off: none of the services are turned on. As such, there is no actual need for a firewall when the computer is not actually open to communication with the outside world. It would be like building a moat around a house that has no door or windows. In the case of the firewall that is too permissive, this again is a moot point, because, as the security experts themselves admit, it cannot be exploited to actually break into the machine. Like computer equivalent of a mail slot in your door, you don't have to actually lock it because nobody will ever be able to get in through there.

It has been a while since the security experts last started preaching the impending doom of the OS X platform, and the plague of locusts that was invariably upon us some time in the future, and it will probably not be long before they enlighten us with more warnings of imminent apocalypse. In the mean time, actual computer users continue to use Leopard and Tiger with no spyware, malware or viruses. In this respect, OS X does have a lot of catching up to do with Windows, and at this rate, it will take them the rest of the eternity.