Unix & Linux more vulnerable!!

In its Cyber Security Bulletin SB2005, US-CERT(United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) recorded more than 5000 security vulnerabilities in 2005 in which almost half of them were present in Linux, Unix and their variations(like MacOS X), meaning that the security flaws in Linux/Unix operating systems outnumbered Windows by 3 to 1, as reported by TechWorld.

Shocking though it may seem to the long line of ranters who like to rant on how safe their Linux or Unix OS is, does this prove that Microsoft’s been saying it right all that time when it said that Windows is more secure than the Linux and Unix behemoths? :think: Though a similar report by security firm Secunia was singing another song when it said that a number of critical Windows flaws had been left unpatched, while a typical Linux distribution had no unpatched vulnerabilities!! :eyebrow: As per Secunia, a total of 5198 vulnerabilities were reported in which 2328 were for Linux/Unix while 812 were of Windows, with 2058 being common(cross-platform)!!

But Secunia further stated that Linux/Unix figures included a lot of updated advisories while Windows had only a handful of updates and the raw figures doesn’t give the level of impact of a flaw.

So is Linux still safer than Windows? Perhaps yes due to Windows dominance on the desktop PC market, but Linux/Unix users should come out of the false sense of security in which they’ve brooded over the years, because someday someone will unleash a worm or attack against Linux/Unix which power quite a lot of servers around the world, causing quite a lot of damage!! :shh: