BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) and Apple Computer?s OS X both provide the ?world?s safest and most secure? online computing platforms, according to London-based security firm mi2g.

However mi2g report has caused a fuss among the ?penguins? by describing Linux as the world?s ?most breached? computing platform, followed by Microsoft?s Windows.

The study is criticised for only considering direct or ?manual? hacker attacks on systems and excluded viruses, worms and other malware attacks.

Mi2g?s study analysed 235,000 successful attacks against permanently connected ? 24/7 online ? computers worldwide between November 2003 and October 2004.

Computers running Linux accounted for about 65 percent of all recorded breaches, while Microsoft Windows-based systems accounted for about 25 percent of such attacks, the study found.

Successful attacks against OS X and BSD-based online systems accounted for 4.8 percent of the worldwide total.

In 2004, 32.7 percent of all digital breaches were carried out against ?always-on? home-based computers, 58.8 percent were against small entities, 6.1 percent were against medium size entities and 2.5 percent were against large entities ? such as businesses, government agencies and non-government organisations.

Mi2g?s executive chairman, D.K. Matai said that many of Linux?s security flaws are caused by multiple distributions of the operating system and the lack of standardised security procedures for applying patches.

?More and more smart individuals, government agencies, and corporations are shifting towards Apple and BSD environments,? Matai said.

?There is an accelerating paradigm shift visible in 2004 and busy professionals have spotted the benefits of Apple and BSD because they don?t have the time to cope with umpteen flavours of Linux or to wait for Microsoft?s Longhorn when Windows XP has proved to be a stumbling block in some well chronicled instances.?

He added that one of the biggest complaints the company hears from customers is that it is very difficult to find a qualified Linux administrator.

Others say the study is flawed for not including virus or indirect attacks and may simply show that as the use of Linux grows it is becoming a larger target for hackers.

Linux-supporters (who are called ?penguins? after the open-source system?s symbol) say that if mi2g had included viruses and another automatically operated malware, Linux would have come out as more secure than Windows.

In response, mi2g says BSD and Mac OS X would still be more secure than both systems if the virus and other automatic malware were included.

BSD and Apple are not protected from attacks just because they?re relatively rare compared with Windows and Linux, mi2g said, adding that BSD and Apple are used in many mission-critical applications and high-security government and military installations.

?There are many genuine reasons to attack BSD and Apple,? Matai said.

I think the study (available at www.mi2g.com) is a good one. By concentrating on the direct attacks, it gives businesses a better fix on the extra steps they need to take when using ?free? operating systems such as Linux.

Direct hacker attacks are a more serious threat to a business than virus because it means the perpetuator has a direct goal in attempting to breach a system. The study is also a wake-up call to the Linux community: They need to be more organised in getting updates and versions co-ordinated with their users.

I am behind Linux and other open-source systems but I also want readers to be aware of the problems.

The Linux community has not been very good at acknowledging the problems.

They should own up to them as the first step in dealing with them.

The fact is, Linux is in danger of falling behind after a relative long fight to establish itself in a market dominated by giants. In August, Open Source Risk Management (OSRM) summarised the system?s major problem in a report, which stated that Linux potentially infringes 283 software patents.

As described in a previous Tech Tattle column, none of the allegations have yet reached the stage of a court judgment.

However the threat of a suit is beginning to worry some businesses. The SCO Group sued IBM in March 2003, accusing IBM of moving SCO?s proprietary Unix code into Linux.

You can read OSRM?s position papers, ?Mitigating Linux Patent Risk? and ?Why the Linux Community Needs Open Source Insurance?, at www.osriskmanagement.com.

The other open-source alternative to Linux is BSD.

What is BSD? It is a version of the UNIX operating system developed at the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information try www.freebsd.org and http://flag.blackened.net/freebsd/.