Hackers have long preferred to focus their attacks on Microsoft’s operating systems over the years, but there have been signs that they’re starting to target OS X as well. With the threat of security attacks looming in the background Apple has decided they need to get help from the very hackers that know how to exploit their software.
To help lock down its security issues, Apple has hired the same noted computer security researcher, and former hacker, who helped Microsoft fix Window Vista’s security bugs.
Apple’s newest security team member, Kristin Paget – formerly known as Chris Paget – has one of the best reputations in the world for finding security flaws. Paget and her team of elite hackers were hired by Microsoft five years ago to clean up Vista’s security issues, and Apple is hoping she can do the same for them with OS X.
When Paget arrived at Microsoft the Vista team thought their operating system was pretty clean, but once Paget and her team got their hands on it they discover how terribly wrong they were. Paget’s security efforts actually forced Microsoft to push back the launch date of Vista so security issues could get fixed. As a reward for her teams bug-hunt hackery, Microsoft Vice President of Windows Development, Brian Valentine, gave the team special T-shirts, that read “I delayed Windows Vista.”
During her keynote at the Black Hat Security conference in 2011, Puget said, “We prevented a lot of bugs from shipping on Vista. I'm proud of the number of bugs we found and helped get fixed.”
Paget was hired as a core operating system security researcher by Apple this past September. After her time at Microsoft she had been working as the chief hacker at Recursion Ventures – a company that specializes in hardware security.
Source: WIRED
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