Most Secure Operating Systems for 2019

During the recent American and French Presidential elections, the prime candidates suffered a breach of security, which led to their immensely sensitive cache of confidential emails being compromised and on basis of this breach question that what are most secure operating systems rises.

This made many reconsider how secure their operating systems really are. What protections do they provide against such contagious malware and spyware attacks?

What you exactly mean by a secure operating system depends on of what you want to defend. Threats vary, so do the protections liaised against them.

From compromising your phone’s gallery to even losing your Bitcoins, there are multiple layers of threats, which you might need to address and considerations while acquiring a secure operating system.

OS Security

However, despite all the security an operating system can deploy to beef it up against malicious intent, there is very little you can do if you are being attacked by a zero day exploit. This exploit targets any discrepancy or bug found in the OS or in third party programs that was previously unknown to its developers.

And, if a highly skilled intruder manages to use these vulnerabilities and breaches within your OS, then the system would probably be held to doom until a patchwork emerges fast.

Detecting such threats is not such a plausible scenario. Even highly advanced Intrusion Prevention systems or IPSes are not capable of identifying such threats. This is because the attack signature doesn’t match any of previously known Malware signatures.

That’s exactly where these Z-Day exploits gain their notoriety for being the biggest threat in the current security domain.

While you can’t stop or detect them that easily, you can definitely neutralize some of their effects by opting for security protocols like data segmentation or even full disk encryption.

This rule or anomaly, as you may term it, will be almost the same irrespective of which OS is being reviewed below, so please bear in mind that no OS IS SAFE from a Z-day exploit whenever it strikes, and we have based our rankings below on metrics other than this.

Most Secure Operating Systems

Here are the most secure Operating Systems out there and our guide towards the different layers of security they could afford you, gearing you towards making a more informed choice when it comes to updating your current OS or making a switch altogether:

Open BSD

BSD or Berkeley Software Distribution traces its origins to the University of California and is the most secure OS featured on our list. Why?

Because it’s serving a very niche market and its developers have been incessantly paranoid about the security it affords to the users.

Its developers take pride in the proactive approach, which is to detect security loopholes and redeem them before anyone else figures them out. This system of auditing has served Open BSD OS pretty well up until now.

In the last decade, there have just two attacks on the system, which speaks volumes about its capability to ward off unnecessary heckling.

But one of the most impressive features of Open BSD is that, its basic network stack comes with a built in IPsec system. Other OS often rely on VPNs to provide that grade of security and this prime feature is an indicator of how encryption is big part of Open BSD.

With Open BDS, you would have all of your essential resources turned off by default, including your Web Servers, guaranteeing an impenetrable OS system to its user.

However, its main downside is that it’s of little use to those who are lowly skilled in tech. It requires a comparatively informed and experienced user to make full use of it.

But, considering the fact that it doesn’t log user info and protects its pilferage with all its might, it’s the safest bet by a long shot for even the most strident of security buffs.

Qubes OS

Intended for those who live at a heightened level of security risk, nearly all the time, such as whistleblowers, activists, high profile bankers and others alike, Qubes is an incredibly safe OS.

Each program is restricted in access to the rest, which means that even if you experience a security breach, it won’t be able to reach other areas and affect the whole system.

Qubes does this by making compartmentalization necessary to the core through initiating each program in its internal virtual machine. This separating initiation procedure is intended to alienate each program from the rest of its contemporaries and hence provide a layered, secure environment to each user.

But, this system scores less because users will find it incredibly difficult to use and would have to troubleshoot issues a lot of times before they start getting a hang of it. Qubes doesn’t log user data, thereby providing a good reason for you to go out and experience the pain of learning how to operate it.

Mac OS & Windows OS

Have you heard the myth that Macs don’t get viruses? And how about that myth that Macs are more secure than Windows? Basically, adhering or believing any of these two myths would be akin to exposing yourself to security breaches quite easily.

These myths ride of the fact that Mac OS is targeted less frequently by malware and adware than Windows OS. Why? The answer is a no Brainer!

Windows is by far, the most popular OS on the planet with a mind-boggling 89% share of the OS market. Mac OSs shouldn’t even be considered at second place as they are installed in just a paltry 8% of the systems globally. And this difference in popularity fuels the aforementioned misconceptions like wild fire.

Just answer this, if you are a skilled hacker and are looking to siphon of money of individuals and firms, won’t you intend to target Windows OS