The annual hacker competition Pwn2Own is about to begin. Charlie Miller, a well-known security researcher who has won two consecutive championships, recently accepted an interview and said that the combination of Windows 7 and IE8 or Chrome can bring the strongest security experience to computer users.
When the reporter asked which operating system was easier to crack, Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Miller said it was the latter. He said that Windows 7 has complete ASLR (random address space allocation), and the most vulnerable Java and Flash are not installed by default.
Miller also gave what he considers to be the most secure and difficult-to-break operating system + browser combination: Windows 7 and IE8 or Google Chrome. Of course, the prerequisite is that Flash is not installed. He said: "The difference in security between browsers is not particularly obvious. The biggest security factor is not to install Flash."
At the third Pwn2Own hacking competition in March last year, Charlie Miller took down Safari 4 on a MacBook laptop in just 10 seconds.