Mac Hacker gets no attention, wins $10k

So, there has been a lot of news about this hacking into a Mac.

First, let me remind everyone that the CanSecWest security conference was holding a contest to win a Macbook if you could hack into a Mac from a remote location. No one could do it, so they had to change the rules, allowing physical access to the Mac. So the winner of the MacBook basically “allowed” this access by physically typing in the address of the web site. So, this was not someone taking over a computer but more like giving up control.
Now, that is not to say that Zovi, the engineer behind the actual hack did not come up with a critical flaw that needs to be fixed. I will admit Macs are not perfect, but that is one hack compared to the thousands in Windows.
Speaking of thousands of hacks, here is the real point that they seem to get wrong in every “Mac isn’t so tough” security story.”

(I will explain after the excerpt)

Security experts not surprised the Mac was hacked
Jim Dalrymple - MacCentral
Thu Apr 26, 3:09 PM ET

Security researcher Dino Dai Zovi sent a shudder through the Macintosh community late last week when he successfully hacked the Mac with an exploit that he sent to a friend attending the CanSecWest security conference. By gaining shell access to a Mac by pointing the Safari Web browser at a specially-constructed Web page, Dai Zovi won a $10,000 prize from 3Com’s Tipping Point division—and took a lot of Mac users by surprise.

…snipped for space…check out the whole story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20070426/tc_macworld/securityexperts20070426_0 ...

“If a hacker turned their attention to the Mac, it would suffer just as much as Windows,” [Ray] Wagner, [Gartner’s managing vice president in the secure business enablement group] said. “Attacking the 95 percent of the market gets them more attention.”

Really, now, read that last line again? When was the last time a Windows hacker got any attention? I can’t remember, can you? But, I can remember the attention those two guys got when they hacked third-party wireless drivers on a Mac (note: They didn’t hack the Mac, just someone else’s software, and there is still some question as to how much was BS and how much was real hacking). And Zovi, here he is getting tons of media attention, like this blog and the MacWorld article I am citing, and thousands of other tech news sources. Not only that, HE WON $10,000 for finding it!!!

When was the last time a Window hacker got that kind of attention? Even the Vista hackers that have already busted the DRM and Authentication routines in Microsoft’s brand-spanking-new cheap rip-off of OSX haven’t gotten as much attention as this one hacker who devoted his time to OSX.

Therefore, Wagner, this security expert contradicts himself by being quoted in one of the many articles that give attention where none should be had.