British cyber security firm mi2g recently announced the results of a study that names Mac OS X one of the most secure online server operating systems in the world, alongside the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) family of Open Source systems. The study also showed that Linux is currently the most-breached online server OS.
The study was conducted by mi2g"s Intelligence Unit, which looked at the overall number of attacks against government and private sector online servers, as well as the percentage of successful attacks, for the month of January. Linux bore the brunt of 80 percent of the overall attacks, followed by Microsoft Windows at 12 percent and BSD and Mac OS X at 3 percent, together. The total number of successful attacks, according to mi2g, was 17,074, of which Linux accounted for 13,654, Windows 2,005, and BSD and Mac OS X 555. Looking strictly at successful attacks against government servers, Linux comprised 57 percent of those, followed by Windows at 35 percent and BSD and Mac OS X at 0 percent, which the company notes is a first for that category.