Linux Leads As Digital Target

While Microsoft vulnerabilities seem to be among the most reported, Linux is actually the most attacked operating system, according to data from mi2g.

Since September 2002, Linux has been the most attacked operating system online with 51 percent of all successful overt digital attacks, and mi2g found that roughly two-thirds of all successful breaches in August 2003 against online servers targeted Linux, when 12,892 online servers running eBusiness and information sites were compromised.

“The proliferation of Linux within the online server community coupled with inadequate knowledge of how to keep that environment secure when running vulnerable third party applications is contributing to a consistently higher proportion of compromised Linux servers,” said DK Matai, executive chairman, mi2g.

Just over 23 percent of the August attacks were directed at Microsoft Windows, with breaches against 4,626 Windows servers. “Microsoft deserves credit for having reduced the proportion of successful online hacker attacks perpetrated against Windows servers,” said Matai.

Despite tightened security measures, the most successfully attacked OS within the government environment in August 2003 was Microsoft Windows (51.4 percent), followed by Linux (14.3 percent).