IT Gang - A place for tips and tricks

Well, if you've read my previous post you probably know that I am the proud owner of a brand new Linux machine! Yeeeee!

So, as a Linux newbie, my next question after installing Linux was: how to protect myself and my computer against computer viruses?

Believe it or not, the most answers you get when asking "what is the best Linux antivirus" is: LINUX! No, don't laugh, it's not a joke! It really seems that you don't need an antivirus when running Linux. Yes, you need one if you are running a server based linux, used as an email server (for example) in order to clean the viruses from emails so that the WINDOWS based end users (the person whom the email is addressed to) reads the email...

Confused already? :) Let me put it this way: Person A sends an email containing a virus to Person B. The email server, Server E, will scan the email from A and remove the virus, so that when B reads the email, his Windows PC will not be infected. If you have a linux server (Server E in this example) you need an antivirus. If not, you don't need one.

Yes, there is malware for Linux, but in order to allow such a program inside your PC you really need to allow it to access it. As you can read in the post "How to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps" ( http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/6229 ), it's fairly simple to write a malware. Please be aware of the difference between the term "VIRUS" and "MALWARE". (If I got this right) A malware is an application that a user installs on his/her PC and which causes damage/propagation/bad things to that user's PC. A virus is a malware that installs itself, without the user's "agreement" (intervention) on one's PC.

So writing a Linux malware is very simple, but convincing a Linux user to blindly double-click on an email attachement to install the malware is ... well, usually not that easy :)

In conclusion, it really seems that you don't need an antivirus when running Linux, which is indeed a comforting though. But remember to keep an eye open on the "evil looking" email attachements. They just might ruin your faith in Linux, and if they do, you're the only one to blame!