Hacking incidents are on the rise – August 2002 was the most active month for hacking since the dawn of the Internet. The target? Primarily Windows systems. Formerly Linux systems were the hacker’s target of choice, but now they’re breaking their way in to the Windows OS.
One reason for the switch is that cracking a Linux server is a point of pride; Linux admins are typically security-conscious and pose a challenge to the intellectual hacker. With such ego-inflating attacks on the decline and criminal attacks on the rise however, Windows systems are more popular targets because they’re easier to break into. Microsoft releases warnings about security holes constantly, with patches following quickly. But how quickly are these patches located and applied? The lazy, criminal hacker hopes you’ll forget to patch and make his break in easy.