Macs not safe from viruses, says Sophos founder

The co-founder of antivirus company Sophos said the Mac is not a virus-free platform. He also believes Windows can be as secure as Linux - if it is configured correctly.

Speaking in an interview with silicon.com sister site ZDNet Australia, Dr Jan Hruska, who co-founded Sophos and was one of the first ever PC antivirus experts, said viruses on the Mac are here and now.

He said: "They are available and they are moving around - it is not as though the Mac is in some miraculous way a virus-free environment.

"The fact that most people do use PCs means you certainly do hear more about those attacks. It gives a false impression that somehow Apple Macs are all virus free."

Got two seconds?

Make your voice heard - take our latest poll.

Hruska's comments come just weeks after an OpenOffice macro-virus, which is capable of infecting Mac OS, Linux and Windows, was discovered. On its website, rival antivirus company Symantec said the virus is being distributed and OpenOffice users should "be cautious when handling OpenOffice files from unknown sources".

According to Hruska, there is no reason why Windows XP cannot be made as secure as Linux, if the security systems within the OS are used correctly. "It is important to realise that there is no magic in Linux from a virus point of view. It is really the question of how that security is deployed," he said.

Hruska explained that Windows and Linux have been used for different purposes - which has affected their security record: "On Microsoft operating systems, which were traditionally used on the endpoint, everybody ran as an administrator, which meant that if the operating system has security built in, it is simply not used.

"Linux came from the server world and in those deployments there was a great deal of effort put in separating users and making sure users do not run as administrator. It is really from the point of view of usage that security on Linux is probably used more than security on single user operating systems like XP and Vista."

James Turner, industry analyst at IBRS, backed up those sentiments. "I think it's a spurious argument to say that any of the leading operating systems is more secure than any of the others. It almost doesn't matter what OS you're using - it all depends on the processes and people supporting the OS. And this is without even talking about the supporting network architecture around the OS," he said.

Turner added: "If you want to get nitty-gritty, then using the Common Criteria listings, Windows XP is certified to EAL4+ and Apple's OS X is only at EAL3."

Munir Kotadia writes for ZDNet Australia