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Hackers aren't just picking on Microsoft

By Derek Sooman

On May 2, 2005, 8:04 PM

New evidence suggests that black hat crackers and other online criminal elements are targeting antivirus software and media players like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, rather than heaping all of their attention onto Microsoft and problems with its software. Whilst there remains a huge amount of cracking which centres on Microsoft products, the SANS institute (who I am an ultra fan of) claims that crackers increasingly exploit flaws in software made by other companies as well.

One reason for this might be that Windows users are now accepting security updates automatically. Obviously, security flaws are found in many operating systems and other software products continuously, with patches more often than not being quickly released. The problem is that, in the past, Microsoft users might neglect to patch. Now that more automatic patching processes are underway, it’s likely that crackers are turning their attentions to other software from differing sources.

"Operating systems have gotten better at finding and fixing things and auto-updating, so it's less fertile territory for the hackers," said SANS Chief Executive Alan Paller.

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  1. May 3, 2005 3:31 PM
    Soul Harvester said:
    " with patches more often than not being quickly released. "I completely disagree. Microsoft has sat on known exploits and vulnerabilities for 9 months and more at a time. There are still vulnerabilities we have to guard at my workplace because Microsoft hasn't released a patch for it, even though many of them have been in the PD for many months.
    Reply
  2. May 3, 2005 6:15 PM
    phantasm66 said:
    I think the point is that, although no one thinks that OS patches (especially Microsoft) are released quickly, that they are being released "more quickly." This is what is making Windows (very gradually) a less appealing target.I guess I should have said "more quickly."
    Reply
  3. May 5, 2005 6:38 AM
    phantasm66 said:
    [quote]"Hackers haven't stopped attacking Microsoft products, but they've started attacking everything else as well," Alan Paller, director of research for SANS[/quote]
    Reply

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