Online crime gangs embrace open source ethos

Proprietary vs FOSS

This is why Proprietary software will eventually be set aside in favor of FOSS. There is simply no way for proprietary software vendors to keep up with security when competing with criminals who share their code.

The Linux FOSS model is built by people with a principled incentive to build and share their software. Even if so-called hackers get their hands on the code, the security has been vetted by hundreds if not thousands of programmers all over the world with different backgrounds and interests.

Not so with proprietary security regimes such as Windows. Even the Department of Defense acknowledges that security by obscurity doesn't work.

Apparently the malware writers understand that re-inventing the wheel isn't very economical and they're willing to share their efforts.

There is no doubt that they are working on finding ways to make viruses propogate on FOSS. But first they're going to have to chew their way through 30 years of combined software development from Unix to Linux, and an entirely different philosophy about programming and design from Windows. And then they're going to have to deal with systems that update themselves faster with greater reliability than with Windows in addition to the fact that FOSS programmers are more willing to admit flaws than Microsoft. How can they not admit to the flaws when the code is out there for all to see? MS Windows has security flaws going all the way to Windows 1.0 that still have not been plugged in XP (don't know about Vista yet).

Where Windows has for 30 years made convenience a priority, FOSS has made security a priority.

I'm not saying that virus writers will never figure out how to make viruses propogate easily on Linux or Unix. I'm saying that the life of a virus on Linux or Unix is slow hard death.

Thanks for the article.