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Apple security - silence then abuse

Here we go again. Security experts warn that there is a hole in one of Apple's products, Apple says there isn't a problem, and a month later it releases a fix for it. A journalist (me) writes a story pointing this out and is faced with email abuse from the Apple faithful.

Exactly the same thing has happened several times in the past and it's not just me saying it, it's anyone that points out the startlingly obvious: that OS X, Safari, MacBooks, whatever, do not exist within some holy forcefield of invulnerability - they are just electronic products.

Anyone who covers Apple's security problems is very quickly faced with the same frustrating pattern. A hole is discovered and then Apple either refuses to discuss the issue or it says it is "looking into the issue" and refuses to say anything else until it has properly reviewed it. The company then produces a fix in its own time and releases it along with a whole bunch of other patches, providing the bare minimum of information in the hope no one notices.

At no point does it inform its users that there is a problem, and it goes out of its way to underplay the extent of the hole in the advisories when the fix is finally produced.

If a security company, frustrated at delays, goes public with the hole, Apple immediately criticises the company, and then claims the hole is not significant and it knows of no actual exploits. It does the same every time and this damage limitation is subsequently and consistently shown not to be true.

What's crazy is that these exact same criticisms used to made of Microsoft, to the extent that the company's security image has never recovered. But rather than go Microsoft's more open and honest route, Apple has decided to go the ostrich route by relying on its own customers' fierce loyalty to protect it.

Here's a list of some security events that have affected Apple in recent times: Read on @ Tech World
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