Security & Privacy + Software & Apps

Time was, everyone would pick on Microsoft for its poor security. Redmond took note of this, and did some hard work to improve security in both Windows and its applications – especially Internet Explorer and Outlook – and now security experts are finding that Microsoft is doing quite well, security-wise. The new one to point fingers at is Adobe, because of problems with its ubiquitous Acrobat and Flash software.

In an Infoworld article, co-founder and CTO of eEye Digital Security, Marc Maiffret, formerly a staunch critic of Microsoft, now praises the company for its efforts, saying, “Microsoft is getting a lot of things right. They’re not perfect, but their approach to secure code has really come along.” However, when it comes to Adobe, he’s not so positive. “Adobe is still in their infancy in terms of having a solid security process in place,” he says, saying that when security issues arise, “the first thing they do is deny, passing it off as a marketing problem.”

But he also discusses Apple:

Most people in the Apple world have a false sense of security and an elitism. I took some heat recently for saying Apple was way behind Microsoft on security. Look who they just hired for security — Window Snyder, who played a lead role in helping Microsoft turn around their security. That shows the company starting to move past the denial part. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.

In the end, this just proves that nothing stays the same forever. Microsoft’s efforts are paying off, and, in part because of this, malware writers are focusing on other vectors, such as Adobe software. As for Apple, well, time will tell.