On Sat, 1 Dec 2018 at 17:18, Samuel Sieb <samuel@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 12/1/18 12:51 PM, home user via users wrote:
> Ryan,
[...]
> I'm using Thunderbird on Fedora-28; there is no "anti-virus" available.
> Is this safe?
I've never found "anti-virus" to have any use on a Linux system other
than a way to use up CPU time. I've personally never used it or
installed it on any systems I have setup for other people and there have
never been any issues in the more than 20 years I've been doing this.
People that I know have tried using it have generally disabled it
because it's annoying and a CPU hog. It has the same effect on Windows
systems, but there it appears to be useful.
The main reason for running AV on linux is to protect Windows systems that
exchange files with the linux box. I'm retired, but at my former work many
users have mail accounts on linux systems, but Windows is the "corporate
standard", so emails or email attachments get moved back and forth. We
also used macOS, which had clamav with Apple's customized patterns. In
one case, a user with a macbook was in a high level meeting with military
brass, etc. and documents were being exchanged via a USB key. ClamAV
found a trojan "copy.exe" on the USB key that was not detected by any of
the Windows laptops (presumably running current high-end AV software).
Over the years, clamav has found many Windows malware instances in
email archives or Word documents. These would have passed Windows
AV scans when the messages were delivered. Most clamav hits, but not
all, were detected by current Windows AV tools. I suppose suspect mails
should be quarantined a few months to let AV software catch up.
Even with AV software there were several large-scale Windows infestations
at my former work. AV software has been a huge PITA on Windows, but
with faster processors and better algorithms it is much less intrusive these
days.
George N. White III
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