[school-discuss] Linux security fears fanned in press

[David Bucknell <david@members.iteachnet.org>]

A friend sent me this piece in Edupage citing a ZDnet article saying 
"successful" attacks on Linux were up in the first six months of the year (up 
20 percent) while those on MS were down the same amount. They don't mention 
the difference in the kind of attack. I'll copy the article here for you. What 
do you think the best way to respond to this type of press is (besides 
applying patches to known holes, of course ;-0)

David

Article:
STUDY SHOWS INCREASE IN LINUX ATTACKS, DECREASE FOR MICROSOFT 
A new study from U.K. company Mi2g shows a significant increase in 
successful attacks on Linux systems for the first half of the year, 
compared to a 20 percent decline in successful attacks against systems 
running Microsoft's Internet Information Server. Mi2g's data showed 
an increase of more than 30 percent, from 5,736 to 7,630, in successful 
Linux attacks and an overall increase in attacks of 27 percent. The 
study is based on Mi2g's coverage of more than 600 hacker groups and 
60,000 hacking attempts since 1995, including data from the Computer 
Security Institute and the FBI. The study also shows significant 
declines in successful attacks against U.K. and U.S. governments, 
attributing the change in part to increased security efforts since 
September 11. 
ZDNet, 15 July 2002 
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-943879.html 
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