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Honeypot Project Finds Unpatched Linux PCs Stay Secure Online For Months: Page 2 of 4

Although Honeypot Project deployed several Windows-based honeypots, it felt they were too few in number to use in drawing conclusions. It did note that several of the Windows honeypots were compromised in mere minutes. A pair of honeypots in Brazil, however, were online several months before being eventually compromised by worms.

The group also spotted several interesting facts about Linux's lifespan.

The older the Linux distribution, the more likely it would be hacked, said the group, which attributed that to more secure default settings by newer versions, a trait Windows, particularly Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003, shares with Linux.

And once a system had been compromised, it was more likely to be compromised again (and possibly again and again). One honeypot running Red Hat Linux, for example, was hacked 18 more times in just one month after its initial compromise. Again, that's not uncommon in the wider world of Windows, where previously-compromised PCs are often "updated" with the latest worm to take advantage of an even new vulnerability.

Although the data was somewhat of a surprise, particularly the huge increase in life expectancy even as Windows' continues to shrink, the group had several explanations for the results.