Poorly designed software makes it easier for social engineering to take place, but such software can also subvert the efforts of a knowledgable, security-minded individual or organization. Virus writers use social engineering to convince people to do stupid things, like open attachments that carry viruses and worms. Social engineering is the art of conning someone into doing something they shouldn't do, or revealing something that should be kept secret. Why?įirst, look at the two factors that cause email viruses and worms to propagate: social engineering, and poorly designed software. But even if Linux becomes the dominant desktop computing platform, and Mac OS X continues its growth in businesses and homes, these Unix-based OS's will never experience all of the problems we're seeing now with email-borne viruses and worms in the Microsoft world. It's true that those two operating systems do not have monopoly numbers, though in some industries they have substantial numbers of users. So there are far fewer viruses for Mac OS X and Linux. Jack Clarke, European product manager at McAfee, said, 'So we will be seeing more Linux viruses as the OS becomes more common and popular.' including ones who work for anti-virus companies.

Businesspeople have expressed similar attitudes. Of course, it's not just 'regular folks' on mailing lists who share this opinion. In response, another person named, oh, let's call him 'Bill,' says, basically, 'How ridiculous! The only reason Microsoft software is the target of so many viruses is because it is so widely used! Why, if Linux or Mac OS X was as popular as Windows, there would be just as many viruses written for those platforms!' Someone on a mailing list or discussion forum complains about the latest in a long line of Microsoft email viruses or worms and recommends others consider Mac OS X or Linux as a somewhat safer computing platform. In fact, I've heard it a couple of times this week already. We've all heard it many times when a new Microsoft virus comes out. Opinion To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it, writes SecurityFocus columnist Scott Granneman.

Linux vs unix vs windows vs mac