The Honeypot Project has added fuel to the debate over which is more secure -- Linux or Windows -- with findings that unpatched Linux systems can be on the Internet for months before being successfully attacked while Windows systems have been compromised in as little as hours.
The international non-profit security organization -- with members from security companies like Foundstone Inc., Counterpane Internet Security Inc. and SecurityFocus -- did not set out to show that Linux is more secure than Windows. Instead, the group set out to ask the question: "Why is no one hacking Linux anymore?"
To explore this question, Honeypot Project members set up 12 "honeynets" deployed in eight countries (the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Greece, Portugal, Brazil and Germany). Data was collected during 2004, with most collected in the past six months. Each honeynet deployed a variety of Linux systems accessible from anywhere on the Internet.
A honeynet consists of two or more "honeypots." A honeypot is a system that doesn't have any real work to do. Its sole purpose is to detect and track any interactions with it, since any such interactions can be assumed to be a probe, scan or attack. |
