Today is the monthly Patch Tuesday for Windows users. We know to expect it once a month. This month though, its important for Mac users also.
Apple has released 58 critical security patches for OS X. It goes to show that even Mac is a vulnerable operating system. Any operating system can be hacked or have holes in it, no matter what the commercials say. Truth be told that the no-virus or minimal virus thing is mostly because people do see a big advantage of writing malware for OS X because of the small market share.
This sort of point can be proven with Firefox. As Firefox has gotten more popular, and a larger market share, the amount of exploits for vulnerabilities has grown. That is not to say that Firefox is a bad thing, it does get patches quite regularly, and has some great add-ons to help mitigate potential issues. The point being that updates are very important and there is no such thing as a totally secure program.
I liken the security and how vulnerable it can be to a scene in an old episode of Doctor Who. Standing in front of a locked door, The Doctor’s companion asks if he is going to use his high tech sonic screwdriver to try and open the door. The Doctor replies with a resounding no, and pulls out a hair pin. He then states that the more complex and advanced something gets, the more vulnerable it is to the simplest thing. This is even more true in the world of computers.
So its patch Tuesday, and no matter what operating system you use, make sure you are patched up.