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Well, you can (and should) always worry about the security of any computer connected
to the Internet. At the moment, however, you are probably less likely to get a
virus from infected e-mail or untrusted Web sites with standard e-mail clients and
Web browsers that come with the Linux systems than you would with those that come
with the average Microsoft Windows system.

The most commonly cited warnings to back up that statement come in a report
from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) regarding a
vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878):

There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to
the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type
determination and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities
by using a different Web browser, especially when browsing untrusted
sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that
require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript and ActiveX. Note, that
using a different Web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and
other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML
rendering engine (MSHTML).

US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#713878

While the note also recommends keeping up with patches from Microsoft to reduce
your risks, it seems that the only real solutions are to disable active scripting and
ActiveX, use plain text e-mail, and do not visit sites you do not trust with Internet
Explorer. In other words, use a browser that disables insecure features included in
Microsoft products.

This announcement apparently caused quite a run on the Mozilla.org site to download
a Mozilla or Firefox browser and related e-mail client. Versions of those software
projects run on Windows and Mac OS X, as well as on Linux. Many believe that browsers
such as Mozilla are inherently more secure because they don’t allow non-standard Web
features that might do such things as automatically download unrequested
software without your knowledge.

Want to know more about this topic or have proof? just click the below sites!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/

http://librenix.com/?inode=21

Home	Fedup with Viruses !?	Home
	Are you so much used to virusses that you cannot stop worrying about it or can you?

	Well, you can (and should) always worry about the security of any computer connected to the Internet. At the moment, however, you are probably less likely to get a virus from infected e-mail or untrusted Web sites with standard e-mail clients and Web browsers that come with the Linux systems than you would with those that come with the average Microsoft Windows system. The most commonly cited warnings to back up that statement come in a report from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) regarding a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878): There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different Web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript and ActiveX. Note, that using a different Web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML). `US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#713878` While the note also recommends keeping up with patches from Microsoft to reduce your risks, it seems that the only real solutions are to disable active scripting and ActiveX, use plain text e-mail, and do not visit sites you do not trust with Internet Explorer. In other words, use a browser that disables insecure features included in Microsoft products. This announcement apparently caused quite a run on the Mozilla.org site to download a Mozilla or Firefox browser and related e-mail client. Versions of those software projects run on Windows and Mac OS X, as well as on Linux. Many believe that browsers such as Mozilla are inherently more secure because they don’t allow non-standard Web features that might do such things as automatically download unrequested software without your knowledge. Want to know more about this topic or have proof? just click the below sites! http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/ http://librenix.com/?inode=21
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