If your data center makes use of Linux, you want to ensure those servers are free from both rootkits and malware. Although Linux, in general, is safe from a vast amount of malicious software, it is a mistake to assume it completely impervious. Not only could you wind up with a data-destroying rootkit, if one of your Linux machines happens to work as a web server, that machine could have been compromised and is now serving up malicious code.