McAfee and Symantec released a virus alert on Monday about a new worm that targetings PHP and CGI scripts stored on vulnerable Web servers. The Linux/Lupper.worm looks to be real nasty, with the only fix being reinstalling the OS. The reason for this drastic fix is that worm could do things that would be difficult to detect.

So what does this have to do with Microsoft and the media? Well, consider if this worm targetted the Windows OS, and the only fix was reinstalling the entire OS. The media would have a field day! But, with this being on the Linux platform, the media probably won’t even pick up on this one.

Now Microsoft certainly has security issues. There’s no hiding that, and certainly they should be held accountable by the media, but in the same breath, so should any other OS. We keep alot of personal data stored on our personal computers, so security should be a priority in any desktop OS. We also keep alot of personal data stored (sometimes unknowingly) by web servers running Linux, so we should expect the same commitment to security on those servers that are storing our data on the Internet. Linux has a good track record in this area. Security holes are found regularly, and Linux sysadmins are diligent at patching and upgrading their systems.

However, having said that, I think the media needs to do a more balanced job with reporting security holes on all operating systems. Windows flaws affect alot of people and so do Linux flaws. As users of the Internet, we need to be aware when our network-stored personal data may potentially be at risk.

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