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Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe?
More at: Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe?_Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe?
By Robert McMillan
November 10, 2009 08:40 PM ET
IDG News Service - Windows 7 users got a nice surprise on Tuesday when Microsoft released its first set of security patches since unveiling the new operating system last month. Of the 15 bugs patched, none affected Windows 7.
When Microsoft launched Windows 7, it was billed as the company's most secure release ever -- the culmination of a nine-year "Trustworthy Computing" effort to shore up a product line that had been riddled with major security holes.
But does stress-tested software really matter to Microsoft's customers, seemingly besieged by more online attacks than ever before? Microsoft had years to improve Windows XP, but the Conficker worm, which began spreading last year, is now thought to have infected more than 7 million Windows machines. And for every Windows bug that gets squashed, hackers seem to find new problems in the software that runs on top of Microsoft's operating system -- Flash Player, QuickTime and Java.
"Windows 7 is definitely by far the most secure system they've shipped," said Dave Aitel, chief technology officer with Immunity, a security company that spends a lot of time finding the latest software bugs. "I guess the question that everybody is asking right now is, 'Is this enough?'"