Linux may be enjoying a boost as more devices run on the operating system, but with popularity inevitably comes crooks, with new reports claiming the numbers malware aim for the software to skyrocket in 2022.
Atlas VPN findings, based on data from threat intelligence platform AV-ATLAS, claim that there were 1.9 million new Linux malware threats in 2022, a 50% increase from the previous year.
Most new Linux (opens in new tab) Malware samples were discovered in the first three months of the year, the report said.
Secure operating system
In the first quarter of 2022, researchers discovered 854,690 new strains. In the second quarter, the number fell by 3%, with 833,065 new strains discovered.
Malware developers for Linux must have taken a break in the third quarter of the year as new detections plummeted 91% to 75,841. In the fourth quarter of the year, the numbers rose again by 117% to 164,697.
Despite these findings, Linux is still a “highly secure operating system,” say the researchers.
“Linux’s open-source nature allows for constant scrutiny by the tech community, resulting in less exploitable security vulnerabilities. In addition, Linux restricts administrative privileges for users and compared to more widely used operating systems like Windows, it still has less malware targeting it.”
But crooks won’t stop looking for vulnerabilities in the world’s fifth most popular operating system, and businesses and consumers should always be on the lookout, the researchers concluded.
Linux may not be as popular as Windows or macOS, but it’s a widely used operating system. From Android devices (which are based on Linux) to Chromebooks, video cameras, portable devices to all kinds of servers (web servers, database servers, email servers, etc.), more than 32 million endpoints run on Linux.
