Linux users are reminded of the importance of properly securing their systems, following findings from SophosLabs that the Linux/Rst-B virus, which is this week celebrating its sixth birthday, is still infecting computers and servers.

Analysis of malware in Sophos's Linux honeypots has shown almost 70% of the infections are due to this six-year-old malicious program. Today, Sophos has made freely available a detection tool to help Linux users find out whether they are unwittingly infected with this virus.

According to SophosLabs experts, Linux servers are very valuable to hackers. By their nature, they are rarely turned off and are often found to be running no, or insufficient, protection against malware attacks. This makes Linux systems ideal candidates for the role of controller in a botnet - the central control point from which to create and manage an army of infected, usually Windows based computers.

"The number of malware programs in existence is around 350,000, and while only a very small number of these target Linux, it seems as though hackers are taking advantage of this false sense of security," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "It’s surprising to see that a six-year-old virus is responsible for a large proportion of the malware collecting in our Linux honeypot, and we hope that Linux users who aren't running security will at least run this tool to find out if they are infected with this granny virus."

Information on the Linux/Rst-B detection tool is available on the SophosLabs blog. Sophos underlines that running this detection tool will only detect versions of Linux/Rst-B.

All Linux users should consider running up-to-date anti-virus to ensure the integrity of their computers and servers is not compromised.