Websense Inc. sent us a pretty interesting, security-related take on the Google Inc.’s Chrome OS news today. On Google’s official blog earlier this week, the company claimed its new open source OS would completely change “the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.” Carl Leonard, security research manager at Websense, countered this lofty claim, saying that “all software is susceptible to issues – it just depends on how much effort the malware author wants to go to and how much profit can be made.” Leonard also pointed out that security experts have already uncovered vulnerabilities and issues with the Chrome browser, adding that Google even ran a contest in which two well-known security researchers found 12 exploitable security flaws in the company's Native Client system. “Two of the top three security threats (SQL injection, browser vulnerability and rogue AV) rely on software flaws so we know that it’s likely that malware authors will be looking for flaws in the Chrome OS to take advantage of from day one,” he said. I’d have to agree with Leonard on this point as well. The more take-up Google’s new OS gets, the more likely users will have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. Well, they won’t HAVE to deal with security updates if Google doesn’t issue them, of course.