Is Mac OS X losing security?

The number of security bugs in Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system has risen higher than last year's figure.

A recent study by Kaspersky Lab security showed that a total of 60 security flaws were discovered in Mac OS X operating system only in the first half of 2006. Meanwhile, the figure for the whole 2005 was only 51 errors.

However, security flaws that affect the core of Mac OS are significantly reduced. This year's figure is only 24 while last year's figure was 38 errors.

The security flaws discovered this year mainly affect the Safari web browser, the email application and the Quicktime multi-media application. However, the security bugs in Safiri browser and Mail mail application that can be exploited via the Internet are on the rise.

Kaspersky Lab's research also highlights the appearance of the first computer worm to attack Mac OS in February. The Leap-A worm spread mainly through the instant messaging application iChat in Mac OS X masquerading as a JPEG image.

There are also three other security flaws discovered that were taken advantage of in February attacks and 6 other errors were also exploited in April.

Researchers have finally come to the conclusion that even if Mac OS X operating system is safe from previous attacks, users should be careful now.

" The global market share of Apple's operating system is relatively low, which makes Mac OS X safe from malware. However, this will change when Mac OS X becomes more and more The first problem to consider is that the authors of malware started to pay attention to the operating system , "the report said.

Hoang Dung