Year on year, the number of Linux malware strains increased by 50%.
Linux may be gaining popularity as more devices are powered by the operating system, but with popularity comes criminals, with fresh studies stating that the volume of viruses targeting the program would rise in 2022.
According to Atlas VPN findings based on information from threat detection platform AV-ATLAS, there’s 1.9 million additional Linux malware threats in 2022, an increase of 50% year on year.
According to the research, the majority of new Linux malware strains were detected in the first 3 months of the year.
Researchers detected 854,690 new strains in the first quarter of 2022. During Q2, the number fell by 3%, having 833,065 new varieties discovered.
Malware developers targeting Linux may have taken a break in the third quarter, even as number of new observations fell 91% to 75,841. The statistics increased again in the fourth quarter, increasing over 117% to 164,697.
Linux is still a “highly secure operating system”
Despite these discoveries, Linux continues to be a “very safe operating system”, the researchers argue.
“The open-source structure of Linux enables for continual examination by the IT community, resulting into fewer exploitable security issues. Furthermore, Linux restricts administrative access for users, and it is still targeted by fewer malware than more commonly used operating systems such as Windows.”
However, criminals will not stop looking for flaws in the world’s fifth most used operating system, and individuals and businesses alike should remain vigilant, according to the experts.
Although Linux is not as well-known as Windows or macOS, it is a frequently used operating system. And over 32 million endpoints run Linux, including Android smartphones (which are based on Linux), Chromebook, video recorders, wearable devices, and various infrastructure (web servers, database systems, email servers, and so on).