Mod comment: Let's try to post comments that actually pertain to the story that synaptical posted. Namecalling is unnecessary, and a forum that's dedicated to Linux is not really an appropriate place to argue politics - there are any number of websites whose sole purpose is to discuss rightwing or leftwing politics and policies. To return to the topic....
Personally, I was highly impressed by this Tech Tuesday story on Yahoo that featured numerous Linux stories -- J.W.

Ok, so once everyone starts using Linux and not windows, then the worm writers will focus on Linux, then I ask. Who will we blame....

Linux is secure, primarily because (in my opinion) it not as popular as Windows (no big bucks in adware), but it will change in the future and then we will all have to pay big bucks to protect our computers….

And CNN will be telling it's viewers how to protect their linux computers from worms and viruses...




DeadlySword

Bleah. The whole security thru obscurity argument is wrong. FOSS like Linux is inherently more secure than windows, mainly because the open source model is transparent and widespread enough that security bugfixes of individual software are posted far more quickly than M$ can. M$ is jut one company, and just doesn't have the same breadth of infrastructure that FOSS does because of it's proprietary restrictions. In addition, Linux (specifically) is more secure than windoze for other reasons, like better security for communication between 2 process running as different users, a better permission control structure, modern authentication methods with support for SSL encryption etc. In the final analysis, windoze is only as secure as they will allow it to be. Linux is as secure as YOU can make it.

hari_seldon99, you make some fair points here (and have a cool signature ). A more simple answer is that virus's on linux need to be root to cause serious damage (a virus/worm etc could only wipe your files if it was ran as your user, and not take down the whole system).

Thanks. for the response, I just wanted to get things back to the subject.

But I must warn you that we cannot be complacent, because as a Professional Developer I know very well that nothing is impossible in software development. It's just a matter of how big the incentive ($$$$$$$$).

Most damage to systems is not only that the system is brought down, but the loss of data. A company or individual can always rebuild a system, but cannot always recoup the data. Even when you have a backup, the question is how long has the virus been affecting your data and also the backups.


DeadlySword

Fair enough. But, if I'm very careful, and disable all unneeded servers, and run netfilter/iptables/other firewall with the policy and rules peroperly configged, and look at log files regularly of rootkit detectors, and check for wierd permissions and stuff, then there are no problems, for you will quickly know if any compromise has been made. It's not so easy in windoze, and everything is opaque and there can be viruses that write themselves to memory and erase all traces of their existence from hard drive, or corrupt the boot sector, or whatever so norton won't be able to pick it up unless you run it from a bootble cd (how many people do that?).

Yes, but the regular users (a lot of them), those that are used to Windows don't do regular checks, heck they don't even run regular anti-virus checks... they think that the machine is smart (smarted than them) enough to do it by itself.. Those are the ones used as zombies to propagate varisus, adware and spyware.

DeadlySword

That's why god invented cron jobs.

synaptical - did anything ever come of this? Did they respond or anything?

Ok, did we go off the deep end here, and missed the point of this post?

DeadlySword

Ohhh... that BBC article is shameful. I can see where the guy was going, but he ended up implying that cyberterrorism was the norm for anyone interested in 'protecting the Linux operationg system'. Hope he got flamed rotten for that one! How do we ever get over this public perception of us all being dangerous zealots?

As for TFA, I don't think it was all that wrong. News bulletins are meant to be pithy and deal with the main points, and get on to the next article. A quick mention of other OSes (not just opensource ones, just ANY other OS really) being unaffected wouldn't hurt, people could do the maths I think, but I'd say the advice they gave was spot-on under the circumstances. Pull the plug now before you become part of the problem by infecting others. They might have added to 'download a fix from another computer and apply it before you go online again', but again most would regard this as obvious I would think.

You know what, I feel that american media is severely biased to the extent that they will air distorted news to serve the purposes of a powerful cliche.
Just take the case of war in Iraq. Almost everyday american soldiers as well as innocent civilians are getting killed and does this get told in the right manner? CNN claims that it is another victory for america. But what about the soldiers who have got killed. And does it say any thing about the Iraqi civilians misery?
If you don't believe what I have said, try viewing CNN and BBC or any other foreign TV news channel at the same time. You will know the difference in their coverage of the same news.
I think what I have said filters down to open source or GPLed software too. Because american economy has a dependence on revenue generated from propritery softwares rather than open source ones. And hence this bias.
But that does not stop third world countries like india and china from embracing and evangelising GPLed softwares as these countries have nothing to lose and at the same time save valuable foreign exchange in licencing fees to microsoft and the likes in the process.

Yeah, that's true. But the real reason for the bias in US media is more sinister. It's the result of big right-wing republican-dominated corporations having total control over their media, to the extent of them distorting truth to utter lies. BBC is a bit better, though. Most American news media are a collossal joke, barring the few channels that are managed by liberals.