Linux now being attacked

Published on: 13/04/2006

With its rise in popularity, ever increasing numbers of users PLUS the staggering number of people in the world that like to cause trouble (!), it had to happen eventually. A fake "alert" email was sent to a number of Red Hat users. Linux Users Spoofed By Bogus Security Alert the headline reads from a number of Internet news services. The senders even went so far as to register fedora-redhat.com to fool people who normally go to fedora.redhat.com. Windows has had it's share of these, simply because of its overwhelming popularity compared to Linux (and it wasn't designed securely!). However as Linux, MySQL, and other open source software becomes more prevalent, it will be attacked as well. Then it will be interesting to see how Linux is treated in the mainstream press. Will there be a cry to abandon Linux if too many systems are compromised? I appreciate their ability to quickly develop patches. However the installation of patches is still a problem and with attacks like this one, what are the odds that patching on Linux will happen quicker than it does on Windows?