Shannon said:

>It's security is as good as its admin... :)

Maybe or maybe not. I don't think that Linux distributions get audited for
security at the same level as *BSD. Slackware is probably the safest as it
has the least amount of software of questionable value.

>If you are that worried about security, you should be behind a good
>firewall anyway. 

All my systems are locked down by ipfilter and I have a dedicated snort
machine on my network. I also have bigbrother monitoring my machines.

>I have not had much problem with my Slackware setup, most evaluation
>software finds no problems, and it is an easy distribution to keep up
>with with regard to security fixes.

I've installed Slackware behind proxies and Cisco PIX NAT and it was a good
basic desktop for users.

But here is a Linux anecdote:

A number of years ago a friend of mind had a Linux box connected to the
internet. He was hosting a MUD on it for a year or so. One morning he was
awakened by the Secret Service at his front door. A European hacker had rooted
his box, and had been poking government systems for a couple of months. He was
wily enough to figure out when my friend was away from the machine so that he
could do his hacking in peace.

My friend didn't get in trouble, but the SS made him feel like quite the fool.

We never figured out how the hacker got in, but he installed a "Linux rootkit"
and had his fun until the SS tracked him down.
-- 
Rick Kelly  rmk@rmkhome.com  www.rmkhome.com