WinInsider

Curiously, this will come as a surprise to some people, but according to a report by the security experts at mi2g, open source post boy Linux is losing the security fight, big time, to Windows Server. Yep, you read that right: In May 2003 alone, 19,208 successful breaches worldwide were recorded against Linux-based corporate and government systems, while only 3,801 breaches were recorded against similarly-oriented Microsoft Windows Server systems. Percentage-wise, over 75 percent of all server-based breaches occurred on Linux systems during this time period, while Windows systems were responsible for just 15 percent of breaches. Furthermore, Windows-based systems were found to be far more resilient than Linux-based systems during the Iraq war months, from March to May 2003, the report says, a time of increased hacking activity. The company, which has been tracking server attacks since 1995, now oversees a database containing over 220,000 individual attacks and over 7000 hacker groups. So why are Linux servers being so easily compromised? The security experts say there are several main reasons: First, most Linux servers are improperly configured and do not come with decent default security configurations. Second, there isn't a coherent "trustworthy computing" initiative in the open source community. Third, because Linux is becoming more popular in the server world, it's a more obvious target. And fourth, Frank Stallone. In other words, everything I've been saying about Windows, Linux and security was not only true, but evolving in a wonderfully predictable way. Isn't it time we stopped all the bogus "Windows isn't secure" baloney when there is a far less secure competitor out there, just waiting to be compromised?