Apple and Oracle his top of the list for most vulnerabilities

Danish security firm Secunia recently reported that Apple surpassed Oracle this year as the software developer with the most vulnerabilities.

Apple and Oracle were followed by Microsoft, who has held the number 3 spot in Secunia's list since 2006. Others in the top ten list of software vendors with most vulnerabilities were HP, Adobe Systems, IBM, VMware, Cisco, Google and the Mozilla foundation.

Renowned Apple hacker Charlie Miller said Apple's security problems have grown along with the brand's popularity, but the company has done fairly okay in patching the holes in its products.

"Ironically, even though Apple has many more vulnerabilities than other vendors, you still don't see many actual attacks in the wild," Miller said. "This is a function of their relatively low market share compared to, say, computers running Microsoft Windows. At this point, it makes more economic sense for attackers to focus on the 90% of computers their encounter, namely, those running Windows."

Secunia, which has looked at 29,000 software products from 4,000 software vendors since 2005, also found that despite software developers' hefty investments to improve the security of their products, vulnerabilities are still as abundant as they were five years ago.

You can read the report at http://secunia.com/gfx/pdf/Secunia_Half_Year_Report_2010.pdf

Verizon signs up more new subscribers than AT&T. Did the Droid X have anything to do with it?

Verizon signed up 665,000 new wireless customers during the last three months, while AT&T signed up 496,000. That was actually a 40 percent dip from a year ago for Verizon, but it shows that AT&T's having the exclusive right to offer Apple's smartphone hasn't given it that much of a leg up, at least during the last quarter.

The new Droid X is all the buzz for Verizon. A new promotion allowed current customers a penalty free upgrade to the Droid X. This is a smart move for Verizon since you typically have to wait till renewal time to get a new phone. the move will likely improve revenue from subscriptions since the Droid X requires a $29.99 a month data plan.

Verizon indicated that it had plenty Droid X phone's to go around, but the same day of the release they ran out of product. Users were directed to the Verizon website where they could order the Droid X for for $199 with a two year agreement.

I waited in line the night of the release for forty five minutes to no avail and ended up ordering online. Initial reports from Verizon said the phones would ship July 27, 2010. Later we received an email from customer service indicating the shipment would go out on August 3rd. The new Google Android Phone offers a ton of features, larger screen and 3G mobile hotspot for up to five devices.

No matter if you are a fan of the IPhone or the Droid X it is a good time to be in the market for a smart phone.