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Symantec Praises Microsoft Windows Vista Of all Commercial OSs

There have been frequent criticisms that Microsoft releases insecure products having plenty of vulnerabilities and security holes. However, the leading security company in the world, Symantec does not agree to this. The company has said something like that in its recent research report.

It said that Microsoft Windows had the minimum number of vulnerabilities and was most prompt in issuing patches among all operating systems running on a commercial basis. But at the same time it had some flaws that were more serious than Red Hat Linux or Mac OS X.

In its 11th Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec said that Microsoft's operating system enjoyed the widest acceptance compared to its competitors.

On the basis of Symantec's monitoring activity over the leading five available operating systems in the latter part of 2006, the report found least number of patches and the shortest time required for patch development for Microsoft Windows. During that period Microsoft Windows found 39 vulnerabilities, rating 12 as "severe". But the company fixed them all on an average of 21 days.

The next most secure OS was Red Hat Linux that had 208 flaws of which 2 were assigned high priority and while the rest (130) were given moderate priority. It took 58 days on average to fix these flaws.

The third in line was Mac OS X that took 66 days on average to repair 43 flaws having one as severe.

Towards the end was Hewlett Packard's HP-UX and Sun's Solaris. HP-UX contained 98 flaws in the latter part of 2006 that HP fixed in 101 days. Sun had 63 flaws for which it took 122 days to fix. However, Sun did similarly poor in the first half of 2006 when it took 89 days to patch 16 flaws.

In a statement Alfred Huger of Symantec Security Center said the point to note was that hackers rarely target operating systems. Rather they find web applications more attractive. EARTHtimes.org published Huger's statement on March 26, 2007.

Microsoft reacted to Symantec's report by saying that it was committed to handle these threats and would continue to work with other industry players to safeguard customers.

Related article: Sentence for American Contractor for Sabotaging Government Navy Computers

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