Mark Shuttleworth's Ubuntu operating system (OS) has emerged as the most secure when compared to Windows Vista and Mac OS X. This was revealed at an international hacking contest held in Canada last month. The annual CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver is a three day hacking contest aimed at uncovering previously unknown bugs in various types of software so that the relevant vendor can rectify them. 
Shuttleworth’s open source Ubuntu 7.10 Linux was pitted against Windows Vista Ultimate and Mac OS X 10.5.2. Each system, running on various laptops, featured the latest version of all software and was fully patched with the most current security updates.
Hackers were then required to exploit software vulnerabilities that allowed them to take control of the machines. Once this had been achieved, they had to extract the contents of a specific file on the machine to claim victory. Winners received a cash prize and also took home the laptop.
While no computers were successfully hacked on day one of the competition, both the Mac and the Windows computers fell victim to attack on day two and three. Only the Sony laptop running Ubuntu 7.10 was intact by the end of the contest.
Born in Welkom, Free State, Mark Shuttleworth founded internet security and digital certificate specialist company Thawte in 1995. He sold Thawte in 1999, earning R3.5-billiom. Since then he has founded business incubator HBD Venture Capital, and Canonical Inc, which promotes and supports free software.
He has also set up the Shuttleworth Foundation to fund education and open source software projects in South Africa, as well as the Ubuntu Foundation to ensure the long-term maintenance of Ubuntu independently of Canonical.
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