The safety in Linux doesn’t seem to be more the same, mainly after Denis Sinegubko, a specialized Russian researcher in safety, discovered that Linux servers can be infected to be used in a botnet used to distribute malware.

In his blog, Sinegubko informs that the infected servers can make everything that a domestic “zombie” computer can do, as auxiliary in attacks of service denial and to send spam, for instance. The main difference is that those machines are much more potent and they have a great connection with the internet, what turns them still more dangerous.

In spite of the threat to be considered serious, the specialist explains that is much easier to hunt and to neutralize an infected server than a personal computer. The IP address of the servers used to be dynamic (in other words, they don’t change periodically, they are fixed), being therefore simpler to block them.

He still informs that all analyzed servers use common Linux distributions, many of them with vulnerabilities shamefully elementary, what puts in check the notion that the operating system is really safe.

Botnets are nets formed by computers infected by special virus capable to turn them into “zombies”. Once infected, a “zombie” can be controlled at the distance by people or criminal organizations.

They can also redistribute the malicious software that infected them, helping to enslave more healthy PCs.
Today, it is estimated that the digital criminals’ interest for a domestic user’s data is very small. Those hackers’ great motivation is to form a type of “zombie” army to attack larger institutions, be companies or governments.

Via: Geek.