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The MacBook Air was the first computer to fail in a hacking contest between laptops made by Apple, Windows and Linux at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Charlie Miller, the participant who was able to hack into the MacBook in two mintues, won $10,000 – plus the MacBook laptop that he successfully hacked.

No one was able to hack into any of the machines through the network on the first day of the contest, however, yet Mr Miller was able to do so once the event’s organisers allowed the hackers to direct human operators from the three machines to visit websites and open emails.

While details of the hack are not being made public, experts are assuming that the vulnerability must be within Apple’s Safari browser because Mr Miller was only able to use software preinstalled on the Mac laptop.

Rich Mogull, the new security writer at Tidbits wrote: “Although we need to take contests like these with a grain of salt, we can’t dismiss the results. Since it took Mr Miller only two minutes to compromise the MacBook Air, it’s clear that he walked in the door with a complete exploit ready to go.”

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Mail servers are major target for malicious email attacks, security experts have warned.

With businesses of all types becoming increasingly reliant on the internet and electronic communication, unsolicited email is a growing threat.

The security industry to protect against viruses, worms and phishing scams is booming as firms of all sizes look to protect their revenue streams.

‘Mail is a major channel for the distribution of malicious software,’ said Jeff Aliber, senior director of product marketing at security specialist Kaspersky Lab.

‘One targeted attack can reap significant losses to an organisation and the various elements of the ecosystem in which it operates.’

Kaspersky has just launched its new security package for the 2007 Microsoft Exchange Server.

It is likely to have no shortage of customers as businesses take a growing interest in electronic security.

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Widgets and gadgets that users add on to their PCs could pose a security threat, according to Finnish security company Finjan.

Finjan’s Malicious Code Research Centre has found that add-ons that add functions to websites contain code which make the PC they are on more vulnerable to hackers.

The security model that gadgets and widgets have must now be completely revised to take these findings into account, Finjan stated.

Finjan chief technology officer Yuval Ben-Itzhak said: ‘As widgets become common in most modern computing environments, from operating system to web portals, their significance from a security standpoint rises.’

He added: ‘Vulnerabilities in widgets and gadgets enable attackers to gain control of user machines, and thus should be developed with security in mind.’

Corporations may need to deal with a ‘vast array’ of new security considerations, added Mr Ben-Itzhak.

Meanwhile, a new report from Symantec has warned that internet crime has gone from simply causing trouble to a multi-million pound industry.

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