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Windows XP five times as vulnerable to network attacks as Linux 2.6

67% of Linux vulnerabilities are network-safe, vs a mere 13% of MS-Windows XP vulnerabilities. Source Secunia.

That makes a better headline, don’t you think?

Comments

Leon RJ Brooks said…
I think the most incisive comment on the original CERT report was by a SlashDot poster calling himself nahdude812:

“even by their own description, this information is completely meaningless”

Or ruurd from GrokLaw:

“Tallying like this is inane, thinking that the tallies actually MEAN something is insane.”

_Arthur also pointed out that SANS list "Mac OS X" as the #17 security vulnerability of the year despite no OS X vulnerability having ever been exploited.

Real Life experience says that well-maintained MS-Windows servers get broken about three times as often as well-maintained Linux servers. The odds go up steeply in Linux’s favour for orphaned systems, but being ten or a hundred times safer doesn’t offer much comfort if you’re inevitably going to get 0wn3rz3d, which is the fate of all unmaintained systems.

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