Whenever one debates the issue of virus threats and operating systems the following comment is bound to pop up:

“Well Linux is not really less prone to virus attacks, it’s just that virus authors choose to attack the most common Operating Systems.”

If you are an Open Source pundit, you might have come across various incarnations of that argument somewhere during your travels through the intarwebs, or even during a late night drink with some fellow geeks.

Here is why I say it is a fallacy:

  • Linux might not be the most common desktop operating system, but most mission critical systems run on various forms of Linux and Unix, Solaris or BSD.

    Sure Windows dominates the desktop market – for now – but viruses that target the windows desktop exploit vulnerabilities that are common to the WIndows OS. Vista was scarcely out and it was already threatened by viruses on many levels. Vista was not the most common target then. So this leaves two possibilities – The virus authors used vulnerabilities common to the Windows OS (which puts a serious question mark over Microsoft security practices) or Vista was vulnerable on it’s own. I am guessing a little bit of both is true.

  • Linux varies a lot over different platforms. What may compromise a desktop OS like Ubuntu, won’t necessarily threaten a server platform like SLES, or Gentoo.The flipside is that the same thing that compromises a Windows XP machine, will more often than not threaten a Windows 2003 server. I would wager that this is why Windows is easier to hack than other platforms – discover one vulnerability, and you will likely be able to use it on any of a half-dozen Windows platforms
  • People who argue virus threats often overlook the fact that the vulnerability is not Operating System related.Often the debate is about OS vulnerability, but the security holes are in the browser, mail client, ftp agent or any of a number of areas that are not related to software. What gives Linux an edge is that whatever runs in userspace generally stays in userspace. If you get a trojan or worm through the browser the chance of compromising the whole system is minimal. On a Windows box the chance is that you will be able to compromise the whole system.

Now Linux is not hack proof. If you have physical access to a machine you can compromise it, no matte what operating system it runs. The only completely safe machine is one that has no network connection, no keyboard and no mouse, with no USB ports, floppy or other removable storage media drives available.

In essence, a brick.

So the issue is not if an Operating System is unhackable  – it is whether your choice of Operating System makes your life easier security wise or not. Windows is more secure than it ever was, but in the security stakes it is playing catchup with the industry heavyweights.

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