Neither Vista Nor Leopard Are Bulletproof

Microsoft has been beating the old drum of Windows Vista as the most secure Windows operating system on the market since it hit the selves. Similarly, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is applauded for taking on the legacy of a high standard for security synonymous with the Apple brand. But at the same time, both operating systems are virtually impotent against social engineering. And there is little that Microsoft and Apple can do about this. Neither of the companies can produce a patch, or set up a mitigation against social engineering attacks. This because social engineering relies on exploiting the end user and not a vulnerability or a bug in the software.

"So where is the weak point in your network? I think there’s a common expression used to describe it – the problem exists between keyboard and chair. Lately, more attacks have relied upon social engineering to infect users rather than automated exploitation of vulnerabilities in network services. Social engineering is nothing new, but the sophistication of some of these attacks has been increasing. Three prime examples of this come to mind," explained Marc Fossi, Symantec Security Response Engineer.

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