New Conficker variant to come on April 1

**Emi Chan** · 03-31-2009 09:25 PM

I can believe that. That one has crossed my mind before, especially if a certain AV vendor wants to put the lock on market.

**Ynot** · 03-31-2009 09:32 PM

I edited my previous post at the same time you posted the above,
so you may have missed this

Originally Posted by Ynot

*edit*
a few more articles and things

http://www.linux.com/feature/60208

http://www.techthrob.com/2009/03/02/...gram-on-linux/

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Linuxvirus

**Emi Chan** · 03-31-2009 10:17 PM

That's good information and I agree with the points in the links, but it still doesn't mean Linux is invunerable. Now perhaps users of Linux really do not need an AV and if so that's great. I don't buy it but it's great, on the other hand Linux users should take percautions just like any other sensible user who doesn't want their system to get infected. Even the first link supports this statement to a certain degree. Linux still gets updated security patchs because nothing is full proof.

Linux users, like users on every operating system, must always be aware of security issues. They must act intelligently to keep their systems safe and secure. They should not run programs with root privileges when they are not required, and they should apply security patches regularly.

So Linux users still have to make sure of certain aspects like being aware of poor SSH passwords to prevent an exploited code running against them.

I was merely just implying that Linux can have some problems as well as Apple and as well as windows. I know my knowledge is no where near what you know Ynot because I've seen you tech talk it up with a lot of people and 99% of the time you're right. So I'm not going against you dear, I'm not stupid. LOL

**Ynot** · 03-31-2009 10:48 PM

ok, so we agree about viruses

as for other things
I've always said that the threats are there but Linux is very well protected against them

have a look at this thread
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=72625

particularly my posts about destructive programs

Originally Posted by Ynot

anyone can write a destructive program, call it "cracked version of some-other-program" and trick a user into running it

this is not computer security
it's social engineering

Originally Posted by Ynot

as a side note,
Linux in particular is fairly well protected against any destructive programs, due to the use of software repositories or the ability to install from source

Repositories are software stores, provided by your particular Linux distribution - your distro will vet all software in their repos, and you can rest assured that no harmful programs are present

Having the actual source code for programs (while not really for the average person) allows you to actually view what a program does.
If you're concerned about using a program (for some sensitive purpose - financial transactions, or whatever) you would employ a programmer to vet the program, and give his opinion on it's suitability

As I keep saying, anyone can write a program to do destructive things
it's really quite easy.....
but software vetted by either your distro, or some other 3rd party severley reduces the chances of accidentally running a bad program

(this is the beauty of open source software - anything bad is right there, in the code, for all to see - you can't hide bad things in open source software)