5 Cyber Security Myths for Linux Users

When Linux was born in 1991, it was an oddity in a changing world. Over the next decade, it rapidly elicited interest from the technology and developers communities globally, mostly for its open and democratic nature. By 2008, it had an almost USD 25 billion ecosystem. Today, many commercial, non-profit and even government organizations across the world prefer to use a Linux based operating system and applications over proprietary ones. The biggest reason is cost and scalability.

In India, many government organizations and bigger enterprises are using and running on an open source kernel. While there are a number of benefits that Linux offers, scalability, cost being the biggest two, it also faces higher security threats due to the open nature of its kernel. Since Linux is developed collaboratively, it is a shared resource. Companies that participate, share research and development cost with their partners and competitors. This ensures no one brand has proprietorship over the system, and that drives incomparable innovation on Linux.

But with these advantages, LinuxOS also have some security related myths that create a shroud of indecision around the systems.

Here are some of these myths.

Linux is invulnerable

This cannot be true since no operating system- Linux or any other, is completely free of vulnerabilities to security threats. This one too has its fair share of security threats, even if the world community of developers that are constantly creating a secure nest around Linux, can help fast to fight them. But it’s certainly not invulnerable!

Linux doesn’t get targeted by hackers

Since it is not everyone who uses Linux, and it usually takes the third place among operating systems, doesn’t really secure it from risks. The idea that windows and Mac are more popular, more used hence they face bigger threats, is only partly true. There have been very real attacks on Linux, in fact a big one in 2017 when a major vulnerability was located in the open source server platform Samba. In another case, hackers used a five-year-old security vulnerability to infect Linux servers with crypto currency mining software.

Since no one will target it, Linux OS does not need security andanti-virus software

The strength of Linux’s defense is the fact that Linux’s main architecture is just designed differently – with user having much less room to do what they want with important system files. But that doesn’t make it completely non-vulnerable. Like any other OS in the world, the biggest threat to Linux is its users, human beings. Wrong connections, opening mails containing malicious files or browsing questionable websites – all can create a highly risky security situation. And then the fight for threats will be like in any other system.

Open Source and hence more secure

All that means is that Linux’s source code is open for anyone and everyone to analyze. There is a line of thinking which believes that since the source code is available, crowd-sourcing makes the OS much more secure – more people analyze it and hence the chance of a vulnerability being detected is high. But it also means that if this assumption is to be correct, every developer who analyzes the code must be cognizant of cyber security and of the latest vulnerabilities. This is not a practical assumption, so like all other systems, Linux too requires safety and security measures.

Its adoption is very low, so the risk is low too

Linux is the major OS of choice for supercomputers, and machines that need high computing power, globally. In fact, Android, which has the largest market share of the global smartphone OS market, is also based on a modified version of the Linux kernel. Hence, Linux users are not immune from hackers – in fact, they are just at risk, perhaps even more so if hackers want to target the big guns.

As all these ideas and myths have been dispelled, it will certainly be a smart move for Linux users to have adequate security application in place, even if they feel their OS is superior, less vulnerable and altogether niche.

Hackers spare no corners!