Antivirus

[Markus Schönhaber]

Andrew Zajac schrieb:

> No.  Viruses are not a threat to Gnu/Linux.
> 
> The software is source-based.  That means that such vulnerabilities
> are fixed, not just scanned and avoided.  Windows is binary-compatible
> which means that if they actually fixed the vulnerability, something
> would break and some other software would stop working.

Complete and utter nonsense.
What most viruses, worms, trojan horses etc. nowadays do is to try to
trick the user into executing code that does other things than it
pretends to do. There is no technical reason why tricking the user will
work on a binary-only OS but not on one distributed as open source.

> Just keep up-to-date with software updates.   That's the only thing
> you need to do to keep safe.

Nonsense again.
Of course, keeping your system up to date is one of the most basic and
most essential security measures. You simply *have* to do that. But
saying this *alone* would shield you from malware is plain wrong.
Especially: installing all security patches doesn't prevent you from
clicking on the attachment sent to you via email by some "friendly" guy
who tells you something like "Look! I attached a little program that
displays a slideshow of nude pics of [insert your favorite celebrity
here]. You MUST SEE!!!!".
If you execute malware, it has the right to do everything you're allowed
 to - like deleting your data, adding a call to start a keylogger to
your ~/.bashrc etc. - regardless whether or not the system is up-to-date.
It's every user's own responsibility to keep his fingers under control.

It doesn't matter if you're using Linux, Windows, Solaris, MacOS or
whatever - the only thing that can give you reasonable security from
viruses etc. is to not execute code from untrusted sources.

The most effective security device that exists is the human brain. It
has just one drawback: you have to actually use it.

Regards
  mks