[NBLUG/talk] Vulnerability of Linux to virus attacks

[Steve Bursch]

I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop.on an I386 machine.  It's an "out of the box," plain vanilla, installation. In my home-office network, I'm also running several Windows XP machines.  All of the Windows machines that access the Net on a regular basis have anti-virus software.  So far as I can tell, my Ubuntu machine has no such software installed.

My question is this:  if Linux machines were to become the target of a concentrated effort to infect them with viruses, how vulnerable would these machines be?  As the popularity of Linux increases, it seems to me that there would be an increased probability that Linux machines would become targets.  Are they vulnerable?  If so, where do the vulnerabilities lie?

Thanks...Steve