[Yosemitest]

I found the article you listed, but it took a while.
Here's a direct link to Anonymous announces successful breach of Apple's security.
Security is one of my primary concerns, and I find Apple much more secure than Windows.
But my primary question is:

Is Windows 7 Ultimate more secure than Windows XP SP3?
Is it worth the cost difference for a full version?

Also, what security firewall and malware program would you buy for this setup?

[Yo-Yo]

Security is one of my primary concerns, and I find Apple much more secure than Windows.

Apple is not more secure than Windows. Apple is not targeted as often because there are so few of them. When they are targeted, they are found to be just as vulnerable, if not more so, as Windows.

As for Win XP vs. Win 7 security, they're both equally protected. The problem is that Microsoft has announced end of life for XP, and will end update support, so if a future vulnerability is discovered, it won't be plugged in XP.

If you feel you need a Windows partition, then you may as well have the latest Windows, unless there is a specific vintage application that will only run under XP. (We have lots of those at the television station where I work.)

[Swordmaker]

The so called Apple server that was breached was not Apple, nor was it really breached. It was a Microsoft SQL database that had an unsecured survey data of inconsequential nature. Anonymous used a well known SQL injection attack to gain the SQL administrator names and password of the database... No Apple or user security was compromised.

FreeRepublic Article on the facts.