Hello
One of our companys server(running on Red Hat Linux 6.2,PHP,Mysql) i has been hacked.Hence the
it has been advised to
a) rebuild the server with the latest Linux release, or
b) rebuild the server with BSD Unix
it is said that BSD is more stable and is significantly more secure than Linux. PHP, MYSQL, Apache etc. can be installed on top of the BSD installation.Let me know if there would be a problem with either option. Please let me know your thoughts ASAP

Regards
Saravanan

I'd stick with Linux - RedHat 7.2 is good because it's really flexible. If you want to know more about hardening your server, try "Securing and optimising Linux - the ultimate solution" by Gerhard Mourani.

As a rule, you can probably tighten security yourself by using common sense practices like disallowing all access to the server that isn't needed and by firewalling it.

Yup. Same here. I prefer the Linux kernel to the BSD kernel, more flexibility, and the runlevels are pretty handy too. With regards to security, if there's a hole in the sysadmin's head, well then even the most secure OS will get compromised...

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/05/hole.html

you should figure out how the hacker (cracker is actually the correct term) got in. if he or she used an exploit in one of the servers you're running, it's really the particular server should be upgraded or patched, since if a hacker knows about it, someone has probably fixed it in a new version. if the exploit was in the OS itself, then it's a matter of necessities:

if you need to keep the flexibilities, keep upgrading your servers, and find information on tightening up linux. if you don't need flexibility, then by all means go for BSD - they have a fantastic security reputation. MS even uses BSD to run the hotmail server, rather than using their own OS!

yup... and if you decide to go with BSD, try OpenBSD
http://www.openbsd.com
quite remarkable...