[clug] My windows box got rooted last week... how at risk is Linux?

[Adam Jenkins]

> There are plenty of people on the list, myself included, who are happy to help
> with installing Linux and getting yourself set up.  Windows Virus removal is
> ... less commonly offered... :-)

I can help with the Windows removal ;-)

The simple answer is that Linux and BSD more secure than Windows, and it's
not just that the users tend to be more educated than Windows users.  I
think in fairness to Microsoft it should be mentioned that Windows is less
insecure than it used to be, but there's still tons of people out there
blissfully browsing away from an Administrator account, as someone else on
the list previously mentioned.  Many of those are under the mistaken
impression that the latest and greatest brandname
Firewall/Anti-virus/Anti-malware suite will protect them, but if they
don't have all the Windows updates installed, don't bother updating their
antivirus suite, use Internet Explorer, have Simple File Sharing etc
enabled, it won't help a lot.

Running a recent Linux with SELinux and behind a firewall will make you
fairly safe.  But also make sure you use decent passwords, run chkrootkit
and the like occasionally, don't use root unnecessarily and check your
logs.