LInux viruses

[Arthur Pemberton]

On 5/19/07, Norm <maillist at sios.ca> wrote:
> Manuel Arostegui Ramirez wrote:
> > On Friday 18 May 2007 09:46:28 Renich Bon Ciric wrote:
> >
> >> Is there any virus known to affect GNU & LInux systems; fedora in
> >> particular?
> >>
> >> I've read some article at wikipedia that says that there are a few...
> >> Any known cases yet?
> >>
> >>
> >> # Article
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_computer_viruses
> >>
> >
> > quoting:
> >
> > Currently there are under 100 native Linux viruses known but in many
> > organizations the fact that a Linux viruses exists is enough reason to
> > install and use Linux antivirus protection on Linux desktops and servers.
> > Additionaly users of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org have the ability to open
> > and view Microsoft Office documents that may contain viruses. These viruses
> > may not infect the Linux computer but the user can easily attach and send
> > these infected documents unknowingly to someone else and that is a serious
> > problem.
> >
> > As system administrators move to Linux files servers they have a real problem
> > to deal with since the Linux file server can store Windows-based viruses.
> > Windows-based viruses can write to a Linux/Samba network share as easily as
> > they can on a Microsoft Windows based network. System administrators must
> > protect the Linux server from storing these viruses. The only way is through
> > active antivirus defense on the Linux server itself. Our Vexira Antivirus for
> > Linux, as an example, detects not only Linux-based viruses but also Windows
> > and DOS-based as well, I think the current number of malicious or potentially
> > malicious applications (viruses, trojans, worms, etc...) we detect is above
> > 74,000 now.
> >
> >
> I have to add a "me too" to the above answer with the additional
> observation.  Apart from he general insecurity of MS products one reason
> why the assorted malwares have spread so much in the MS environments is
> it was so easy to spread the viruses to unsusppecting users with little
> or no protection.  If the level of protection is kept high in Linux and
> other environments most malware writers/spreaders will continue to focus
> on they systems they can compromise the easiest.
> Shall we offer MS systems as a sacrifice to the malware writers?


Nods in agreement. Sacrifice the beast.


-- 
Fedora Core 6 and proud