ClamAV: Anti-Virus for Linux
It never hurts to use protection. Here’s a way to keep your Linux system free of viruses.
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
One of the things that Linux users love to brag about is the dearth of viruses to be found on the operating system. There are two Linux viruses and neither has been found alive in the wild. On the other hand, there are eighteen bazillion infectious viruses on Windows and that number grows steadily every day.
So naturally, Penguinistas need not worry about anti-virus protection, right? Not so fast… While you’ll likely never face the email-borne infestation that plagues Windows, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ignore anti-virus software.
If your Linux server sends email or serves files on a mixed network of Linux and Windows machines, you should run anti-virus software on the host as a matter of course. The Windows machines interacting with those Linux servers need protection, and anti-virus software can help in that effort.
If you use a Linux desktop, you should run anti-virus software, too. You can notify Windows users if you receive a virus, especially if the virus is an Office- based macro virus. In addition, the world could change at any time, loosing Linux viruses. If that happens, better safe than sorry.
There are several good anti-virus software packages available for Linux, and unlike some popular commercial anti-virus products for Windows, the Linux equivalents aren’t CPU and memory hogs.
