Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 shames Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

For a while now the general consensus has been that Apple’s operating systems have been more secure than Windows. This perception has now taken a blow, however with a team of three security researchers taking only two minutes to hack Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, whilst Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 remained resolutely hacker-proof.

An official announcement from Tipping Point, who organised the 'Zero Day Initiative', where security vulnerabilities of the big three operating systems – Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux – are found and announced to the public, states that "at 12:38pm local time, the team of Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel from Independent Security Evaluators have successfully compromised the Apple MacBook Air, winning the laptop and $10,000 from TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative. They were able to exploit a brand new zero day vulnerability in Apple's Safari web browser."

This will come as a blow to Apple, who have often touted the security of their operating systems, leading to accusations that they have given their customers a false sense of security and exposed them to threats. Users of Windows Vista, however, have been vindicated with the knowledge that their operating system remains secure, especially with the additional security features that have been implemented with Service Pack 1.