Rising Linux And Open Source Attacks: Trends And Analysis

Attacks on Linux and open source Web applications appear to have risen sharply this year, while attacks on Windows systems are markedly down. That's the conclusions of a study by security consultancy mi2g after it compiled a database on attacks . . . Attacks on Linux and open source Web applications appear to have risen sharply this year, while attacks on Windows systems are markedly down. That's the conclusions of a study by security consultancy mi2g after it compiled a database on attacks culled from data from defacement archives (such as alldas.org), hacker bulletin boards and "information from automatic robots".

Sites such as Alldas.org make no attempt to suggest that their data is comprehensive, and it's questionable if mi2g's figures can be used as a metric to compare the vulnerability of different operating systems. But then it's very hard to get solid figures on this kind of data so mi2g's figures may be indicative.

On the other hand, Windows may come out of the survey well simply because we haven't had a Code Red or Nimda this year - yet. The study also makes no mention of of Unix system vulnerabilities.