CanSecWest, a high-profile conference that draws North America's best and brightest computer security minds, just wrapped up. One of the more interesting features of this year's event was called a "pwn 2 own" contest. It featured three laptop computers, each running a different operating system. Conference attendees were offered the chance to hack into the machines. The prize? Hack the machine and it's yours. Here's a link to the rules: http://tinyurl.com/3beslz. each person was allowed 30 minutes to work the machine over and try to recover a secure file from within it.
The results? Apple went down on day two. Vista lasted until the last day of the conference. Ubuntu was the sole survivor.
Does this mean everyone should ditch their favored system for Linux? Not at all. Keep in mind these were the geekiest of computer geeks, and they were allowed unfettered access for half an hour. Unless you leave your laptop sitting unsupervised at a lot of Star Wars conventions, you probably won't face that level of risk.
What it does serve to underscore, however, is that no operating is truly secure (though some try to market themselves that way). No matter what system you use, bolster it with antivirus and antispyware software, and use good sense and the OS's built-in security features.
The results? Apple went down on day two. Vista lasted until the last day of the conference. Ubuntu was the sole survivor.
Does this mean everyone should ditch their favored system for Linux? Not at all. Keep in mind these were the geekiest of computer geeks, and they were allowed unfettered access for half an hour. Unless you leave your laptop sitting unsupervised at a lot of Star Wars conventions, you probably won't face that level of risk.
What it does serve to underscore, however, is that no operating is truly secure (though some try to market themselves that way). No matter what system you use, bolster it with antivirus and antispyware software, and use good sense and the OS's built-in security features.
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