A common rant of my concerns the mind numbing understanding the most tech writers (actually this applies to most periodical writers in general) have about the concept of system security. This “everything I ever needed to know about computer security I learned from watching Hackers” is frustrating when so much good information is available about computer security.
The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that some organizations actively work to change the definition of security to their suite own benefit. That is why I point out this article from the Register. It is one of the best “general understanding” security papers on Linux I have read in a while. The concepts it covers can generally be applied to all Unix-type OS’s, but the article talks about Linux (as well as Apache) in particular. Read it and you will know more about software security for Linux than many in the computer business.