Are builtin security features allied to secure user behavior enough to protect a Linux system? Or should I install an antivirus software?
-
2Duplicate of: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/2751/… , askubuntu.com/questions/10373/… – iamsid Nov 20 '10 at 19:58
-
@iamsid Unix SE is not a dupe but useful. can't do anything about it on ask ubuntu even if it is. – xenoterracide Nov 21 '10 at 2:17
If its a company server then yes you should have anti-virus on it. If you don't and it gets infected, you will either get your balls kicked, or get fired. Neither is good.
At home, you can take more of a chance. however, if you have windows machines, the Linux samba shares can act as safe haven for the virus and can keep reinfecting your windows machines.
Whilst it's quite rare to catch a linux virus or worm, but they do appear from time to time. Having a SSH port available to the internet is a major well known risk, there may well be other common attack methods for linux home servers.
I suggest a virus scanner (clamav) on server machines. You could run one also on desktop linux to stop spreading infections.
Generally, Linux doesn't requires an antivirus because it is nearly impossible for a virus to attack the Linux kernel. despite of this I prefer an antivirus like "clamav" for scanning some windows softwares which Linux users run through wine.
