Google abandoning Windows for Linux and MacOS

Earlier this week, a few stories appeared about Google dropping Windows inside their corporate network, in favor of MacOS and Linux. This seems to have been triggered by the famous targeted attack now known as the “Aurora” operation. Of course, this looks like a huge blow to the security image of Microsoft products, however, does it really make any sense?

First of all, Google didn’t get broken into because they were running Windows. They got hacked because they used IE6, a product that is 9 years old. Google fell victim to the attack because they didn’t follow the most basic security advice we recommend for our users, which is, patch and use a modern browser, like IE8 or Firefox.

Additionally, MacOS is no more secure than Windows 7; on the contrary, it might even be worse because of the false sense of security it provides.

The right thing to do here would have been to switch to Windows 7, on x64 and use Firefox or Chrome for web browsing. Then, creating a company policy where users can’t log in to the corporate network unless they have the most recent patches and their AVs up to date.

Given the recent news of MacOS malware in the wild, I wonder how long until the targeted attack story repeats on MacOS, or Linux. Because, without following the most basic security practices, you will become a victim in no time.