The transparency of the source code is rather a guarantee of security.

However, businesses, says the Cigref are still cautious to the idea of using a free system. The risk of security breaches are not higher in the free software in proprietary software.

For Cigref, Linux is primarily a Unix. Therefore, security vulnerabilities are the same as on any Unix.

However, one of the differences lies in the fact that the source code is available, so a visible both by security administrators and potential hackers.

It has both a risk and an opportunity, says Cigref. He continued: A risk because the hacker is aware of the flaws, but also an opportunity because the safety was never based on the opacity.

The transparency of the source code is rather a guarantee of security that additional risk, concludes the Computer Club.

The report lists the risks associated with any basic operating system: intrusions, virus attacks, denial of service (disabling attacks dataflow important sent to the server)..

However, for these last two points, is on Linux for now, especially thanks to a weak distribution business, but it should not escape attack if its growth continues.

Still, the risk may come from the editors of Linux distributions themselves, who tend to choose a default minimum of security for ease of installation, says the Cigref. The last negative point for the distribution is done often and download media not certified.


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