Linux fends off hackers and viruses

Seventy-eight per cent of Linux developers claim never to have been hacked, according to a recent survey of 500 Linux developers by Evans Data.

Of the 22 per cent that had fallen victim to hacking, nearly a quarter said they had been attacked by internal users with valid login IDs. By comparison, earlier this year Evans Data surveyed a group of non-Linux users and found that a significantly higher proportion - three in five - of those had suffered a security breach.

In the latest survey, Evans Data also looked at virus infection rates; over 90 per cent of the Linux users surveyed said they had never been infected with a virus.

Although the threat from viruses does exist for Linux users - Bliss, the first Linux virus, was written back in 1997 - most of the viruses circulating the web at present are written to take advantage of flaws in Microsoft software, because the sheer number of Windows systems gives any one virus a much greater chance of spreading.

Nicholas Petreley, Evans Data's Linux analyst, in a statement: "The reasons for the greater inherent security of the Linux OS are simple: more eyes on the code means that less slips by and the OS is naturally going to be better secured."

Petreley added that, according to his company's research, one way Linux machines are compromised is by users' improper configuration of security settings. "Ironically, the other flaws that crackers use to compromise Linux servers are flaws in applications that run on competing operating systems, so those vulnerabilities are not specific to Linux."

Evans Data also found that just over three-quarters of those surveyed don't believe that SCO's legal action will affect their company's take-up of Linux.

Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK