From the ‘I told you so!‘ files:
Just before Black Hat started, I suggested that Linux was the right choice for people headed to Black Hat.
According to stats from Aruba Networks, the wi-fi provider for Black Hat – attendees apparently took my advice.
Aruba did some device fingerprinting for those that connected to the Black Hat network. Linux users comprised 35 percent of the total.
Coming in a close second were Apple iOS devices at 28.4 percent. Windows came in third at 21.8 percent, while Apple Mac OS was fourth at 14.9 percent.
So yeaah, sure if you combine iOS and Mac OS X, Apple leads, but in terms of discrete OS systems, Linux is number 1.
Is anyone surprised?
No, Linux doesn’t magically make you safer than other operating systems. It won’t protect you from XSS, CSRF or insecure SSL. But it will protect you from the myriad of malware executables and trojans that are out there.
Linux also was likely the choice of Black Hat attendees because of its exteme configurability. Black Hat is not a mainstream consumer show, attendees are often highly technical and that’s an audience that Linux plays well too.
