Good overview of Linux's capabilities in regards to networks and security at Security Focus site at http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/42
Black Hats Prefer Linux Nine out of ten digital desperados choose a Unix flavor for their attack boxes. You don't have to wear a black hat to understand why By Jon Lasser Nov 28 2001 9:45AM PT Let's face it, black hat hackers don't run Windows. When insecure.org did a survey of their "top fifty" security tools, it turned out that fewer than ten of those tools run on Windows, with half of those being commercial products. Not one Windows tool made their top five. And if you've ever been to a hacker convention or a 2600 meeting, you know that Windows laptops are not a fashionable tote among hardcore hackers. There's a reason for this. Imagine for a moment that you wear a black hat: you spend your day breaking into other people's computers, searching their files for cool data, and then using their systems as launch pads for further attacks. What do you look for in an operating system? <rest of the article is omitted> ------ The article looks at qualities such as * security * reliability * flexiblity * robustness * extensiblity * ease of development * ease of use (not in the traditional point & click sense but in the ability to set up automated routines) The article cites three popular tools used by the Black Hat hackers: Nmap, an excellent port scanner available from http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ Nessus, a vulnerability scanner available from http://www.nessus.org/ Whiskers, a CGI scanner for Web sites available somewhere on http://www.wiretrip.net/rfp/ The author also correctly notes "just because black hats use these tools, that does not imply that their authors are themselves criminals or vandals. Many are white hats, or at the least, grey hats." Amen to that! I like the closing paragraph: >> Why worry about what black hats use? Because if black hat hackers use a tool, it's likely to be flexible, robust, extensible, and secure. And you don't have to be bad to want good tools. >> J.D. Abolins
