Linux users bullish on security record

Nine out of 10 Linux developers claim that their Linux system has never been infected by viruses, and four out five said that they have never been hacked.

Analyst Evans Data's summer survey of 500 US Linux developers found that, of the 22 per cent of Linux systems that had been hacked, 23 per cent came from internal employees with valid log-in identities.

Only seven per cent of systems had been hacked three times or more.

In contrast, Evans Data's spring survey of non-Linux developers found that three in five reported that their system's security had been breached, with 32 per cent experiencing three or more breaches.

"It is not surprising that Linux systems are not hacked to the degree that Windows can be exploited," said Evans Data's Linux analyst Nicholas Petreley in a statement.

"The reasons for the greater inherent security of the code are simple: more eyes on the code means that less slips by and the [operating system] is naturally better secured."

The survey also found that Linux breaches were largely avoidable, the main causes being inadequately configured security settings, internet service vulnerabilities and web server flaws.

"Ironically, the other flaws crackers use to compromise Linux servers are flaws in applications which run on competing operating systems, so those vulnerabilities are not specific to Linux," said Petreley.

Other key findings include increasingly rapid migration to the latest 2.6 kernel, up by 80 per cent on the previous six months.

It also found that 76 per cent now believe that the SCO lawsuit will 'probably not' or 'absolutely not' affect their company's Linux adoption, up eight per cent on six months ago.