Today, almost 50 percent of Cedant's systems administration group has received training on how to properly secure the operating system. That training is sure to come in handy. Linux may soon take on more mission-critical duties at the hotel franchiser. As inspiring as these stories may be, they're not always enough to persuade risk-averse CIOs to take a gamble on Linux. No problem, say some Linux backers.
Continuous vigilance is really the Linux security manager's best tool.
Here are some common attack methods and Linux vulnerabilities-as well as ways to protect against them. Implement a firewall and a packet filtering router and use stronger authentication methods where possible. Remote commands such as Rlogin and Rexec use weak network address authentication and are favored methods of compromising host systems in a spoof attack. These commands should be disabled. Other methods such as SSH should be used by legitimate users to gain access.