Apple Gets Security Lecture from Microsoft

Apple is getting a lecture on its security response process from the unlikeliest of places.

In a classic flipping of the script, a Microsoft program manager who regularly serves as the public face of the software maker’s security response process rapped Apple for the way it handles security guidance to customers.

In a series of entries on his personal blog at Stepto.com, Microsoft program manager Stephen Toulouse called on the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to hire a security czar and revamp the way information is released when Mac OS X updates are shipped.

“Look, the only way you can tackle security issues is by getting out ahead of them and clearly communicating to your users the threat, and the clear guidance on how to be safe,” Toulouse declared in a reaction to what he described as the “recent trials and tribulations of Apple in the security space.”

“Here’s the reality, for the next couple of years the Mac OS will experience increasing security threats and mark my words, the company will have to seek outside expertise in the form of a head of security communications in the next 12 months,” Toulouse added.

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He said Apple needs a person “steeped in security issues, true technical analysis, and can lead a good security team to get good guidance out there.”

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