Winning hearts and minds
June 4th 2008
By now, we're all aware of the "carpet bombing" issue and, thereupon, Microsoft's warning to 'doze users to avoid Apple's Safari browser until the mothership issues a patch which, by the way, they've said they won't do.
It's worth remembering that Apple has made an effort to drive Safari adoption among Windows users. The mothership even borrowed a page from Microsoft's own playbook by making users believe that they needed to install Safari as an update, even though they likely had never installed it before.
NewsFactor brings a little more color to the story with commentary from senior technology consultant Graham Cluley (Sophos).
"The good news is that Safari still has a small market share amongst Windows users compared to Internet Explorer and Firefox, and so most cybercriminals are unlikely to try and take advantage of it," he said. "It would be good if Apple could develop a fix in a timely fashion for this problem, but it remains to be seen how quick they will be."
Cluely adds that, because Safari's market share on Windows is so slow, it's unlikely that the Safari carpet-bombing issue will find much traction among professional black-hat hackers. There will, however, be those that use the vulnerability just for giggles, because they can.
A little common sense, please...
The attack vector for the Safari carpet-bombing issue uses a known vulnerability in Internet Explorer. How known? It's been around for better than a year.
Then again, if you're a user, do you care who's fault it is or how lame Microsoft is for leaving this whopper of a vulnerability for so long? They already know how lame Redmond is.
So, Apple, get off your high horse, create a tick box (ie "Are you sure you want to download hundreds of potentially malicious files?") and protect your customers.
The bottom line is Apple is winning hearts and minds because they deliver a higher level of service. Their products are winning because they "just work."
It would be a shame to see Apple growth stumble or stall over a point of pride...
What's your take?
