“The emergence of Linux as a mainstream OS option may be one of
this year’s most interesting industry news stories. But at
International Transportation Specialists (ITS), an Omaha,
Neb.-based trucking company, it is already a part of everyday
life.
Paktronix Systems LLC, also of Omaha, sold ITS on a system
featuring Linux-based firewalls, a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Web server and a Novell Inc. NetWare 5.0 server. The client’s MIS
team was thrilled with the results.
The reseller demonstrated that Linux has major security
advantages over other flavors of Unix, said Pat Abernathy, vice
president of information services at ITS. ‘Linux allows us to
customize some of the firewall functionality,’ closing off such
Unix security loopholes as denial of service attacks and crash
attacks, he said.”
“With Linux, said [Paktronix president Matthew] Marsh,
‘we know exactly what security level exists within the OS.
If you’re trying to provide airtight network security, you cannot
afford to be in the dark as to the exact mode of operation of the
underlying OS.’ With most other operating systems, he added,
residual code, obscure patches and interfaces will not let
programmers dig deep enough.”