LInux viruses

[Norm]

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?