"...We've seen Melissa, we've seen Anna Kournikova, the
KAK worm, and recently the Code Red virus, SirCam virus, and this
was closely followed by the NIMDA virus. All of these spread at a
frightening speed, highlighting how easy it is for a well-written
virus to spread across the internet before people have time to
respond. And, as we depend more and more on the internet to conduct
business, the damage such an attack could cause becomes more of a
worry. Bad attitude
Many Linux users tend to brush off such threats, perhaps feeling
that only Windows-based machines get infected. Unfortunately, the
reaction of many people is 'Ha ha, another worm infected
IIS/Outlook, well we weren't infected because we use the
XYZ-server/email client instead.' Yet it is precisely this kind of
complacency which leads to so many vulnerabilities being exploited.
The 'hasn't-happened-to-me-yet' attitude can lead one to ignore the
dangers, and that is precisely when one is most vulnerable. Like
the fire extinguisher that nobody bothers to replenish because
there?s never been a fire before, ignoring the threats for long
enough is an open invitation to attackers.
The fact that there haven't yet been any Linux viruses in the
wild doesn't mean that there won?t be any in the future. It may be
true that Linux is inherently more secure than Windows, but to the
kind of people who write viruses this merely provides a greater
challenge. When (not if) virus eventually emerge on Linux, are you
ready for them?"
