There are many new interesting alternative operating systems: Syllable, Haiku etc. They may promise speed, low system requirements and many good and promising features. But what about security? Is it discussed enough?

On the age of Internet can we even imagine a desktop operating system without a network connection? With networking comes the need for security.

Over at the Open Sources blog, Savio Rodrigues calls attention to two critical security vulnerabilities in the Spring Framework for Java. They were discovered by security consultancy Ounce Labs, which disclosed the exploits in a detailed report. If you use Spring for critical business applications, you'll definitely want to be aware of the threats and take appropriate measures.

Organizations of all sizes need to mitigate the risk of insider threats. Misconduct by authorized users represents a grave threat to an organization. According to the 2005 Computer Security Institute and Federal Bureau of Investigation Computer Crime and Security Survey, organizations reported that computer intrusions from inside sources accounted for nearly half of all incidents.

Mac users might less vulnerable to Internet security threats than those who take the Windows route to computing nirvana, but 'less' is not the same as 'not at all' and that's why the world's first miniature hardware Internet security devices for the Mac have been announced today with a little help from Linux.

Even though it's not really warranted because security is less of a problem with GNU/Linux but more importantly because we already have free software anti-virus solutions, McAfee is planning on jumping into the GNU/Linux market becuase of the growing number of MIDs running the Moblin Linux OS.

Many users of open source software point to the fact that their applications and platforms are more secure than proprietary alternatives simply because they aren't such obvious targets for malware distribution. As just one example, the Standish Group recently completed a survey in which 70 percent of respondents said Red Hat Linux is less vulnerable to security threats than Windows.

Everyone in the IT industry is concerned with security, especially Linux administrators. Many Linux distributions come with several services that you may not use or ever need, but they're running on your server anyways. This can cause many security threats.

A nice perspective on security threats- past present and maybe, future. Mostly for those poor wretched Windows users of course. Keep it in mind when you are telling them how good it is to have Linux to use!

And before becoming *too* smug, see that there are some very clever malware peddlers out there. So keep your (linux) security awareness in good working order!

If you’ve switched to Ubuntu from Windows, there’s a very good chance that the security failings of Windows featured in your decision. By any measure, Microsoft’s record on security within its products is appalling.