Sometimes something good can come out of something bad. Take the Windows-to-Linux "crossover" virus that appeared recently. While the thought of malware that could jump from one operating system to another gave security leaders and CIOs goose bumps, it seems that it has also aided the effort to thwart the latest malware threat. Since the new bug didn't seem to impact current Linux versions, security researchers started looking into how the virus, called Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a, worked. It turned out there is an obscure bug in the compiler used by Linux, which has now been patched.

For more on stopping the crossover virus:
- read this InfoWorld article