The release of the news prompted some sites to claim that Linux, as a whole, is now at greater risk. The simple truth is that this is not really the case. There is no such thing as a secure OS, but you can make things more difficult for attackers. Both Windows and *nix based systems have vulnerabilities in them that, when left alone, can be a playground for attackers. To the uninitiated securing Linux can be much more difficult, but to the Linux crowd it is just another day to take some basic precautions to prevent all but the most determined attacker from getting into your system.

What I find most interesting is that some of the tricks that Linux users use to lock down their systems can also be turned around in Windows. Locking out service accounts, making system directories read-only, hardening firewall rules (Iptables) can are not specific to Linux. Sadly, most corporations and end users will not take these measures in Windows as it can make your user experience pretty shitty. There is also the nasty issue of third party applications not functioning with the increase security profile.  
 
Once again, we are back to the fact that third party vendors, and even users can and do have a massive impact on how secure systems are kept. Not how secure they can be, but how secure you are often allowed to get them. The NSA, CIA, and the "bad guys" all are well aware of this and are more than willing to use this to their advantage. The information that WikiLeaks is pushing out is just not all the surprising and does not mean that the Operating Systems we use are any less secure now than they were before the leaks, we are just becoming more aware of the tools that government agencies are using to pull data out of them...

Gives me a warm feeling inside, how about you?