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Windows Was Less Vulnerable Than OS X, Linux, and iOS in 2014: Report

Windows Was Less Vulnerable Than OS X, Linux, and iOS in 2014: Report

By Robin Sinha | Updated: 25 February 2015 23:59 IST

Apple's OS X operating system was the most vulnerable in 2014, according to a new report by the US National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

As per the report, OS X leads the list followed by iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Vista, and Windows RT. It has been noted that 7,038 new vulnerabilities were added last year, which results in 19 new vulnerabilities per day.

The report adds that out of the 7,038 vulnerabilities, 80 percent were said to come via third-party applications, 13 percent from operating systems and 4 percent via hardware devices. It is worth mentioning that in 2013 the vulnerability number was low at 4,794. Also, out of the 7,038 vulnerabilities, 68 percent was said to fall under the 'medium' severity, 24 percent in 'high' and the remaining 8 percent in 'low'.

OS X was found to have the lion's share of vulnerabilities in 2014, with 147 total, while iOS had 127, Linux had 119, and the first Windows version on the list, Windows Server 2008, had 38, and Windows 7 had 36. Notably, NVD is counting all the versions of OS X together.

This report by NVD comes as a surprise as the Microsoft Windows OSes were until now generally considered to be the most vulnerable operating systems, and Apple's OS X as one of the most secure. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is on top when it comes to application vulnerability in NVD's list, as noted by GFI blog.

Microsoft Internet explorer is followed by Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Flash Player, Oracle Java, Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox ESR, Adobe Air, Apple TV, Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, and Mozilla SeaMonkey.

Speaking about application security, Lenovo last week said it will no longer pre-install the Superfish software that cyber-security experts said was malicious and made devices vulnerable to hacking. The firm was said to pre-install Superfish in its PC systems that, according to some user reports, automatically showed adverts.

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