Malware for Linux found and deleted

Slashdot and a few web sites are covering a story about a couple of malware programs found on a commonly linked to web site for Linux. Despite the "Oh my goodness" factor of the title sites don't seem to be generating much buzz over the story. Here's what I think about why:

a) The malware in question is something that needs to be intentionally installed on a computer. This isn't some web site pop up that infects the computer from a web site script. You have to consciously install the program.

b) The site that carried the false software removed it as soon as someone discovered it.

What's interesting is that a couple of programs were found, which leads me to believe that someone has probably been intentionally hired, or overly zealous and trying to create hype so as to shocking people into believing something seriously bad can happen to Linux boxes. Well... using programs to escalate privileges in Linux is nothing new, rootkits have been around for some time. This one is slightly different because it bundles a DDoS attack.

Let's be clear, malware is MALicious softWARE, which simply means software intended to harm your computer. In this case you have to consciously install the software in order to infect your system, this isn't something that gets deployed by a web site or comes down to you with updates. So as long as you didn't download either program and install them you're likely safe.

It's likely that stories like these will continue to appear in the coming days and my bet is that someone, or a few people, will continue to write and distribute stuff like this to keep these kind of stories on the radar so they can scare people into thinking Linux isn't safe.

Of course no operating system is safe from all security attacks... but Linux certainly has a pretty good record.