From: Rick Moen (rick at domain linuxmafia.com)
Date: Wed 17 Jul 2002 - 21:22:19 IST
Quoting Wynne, Conor (conor_wynne at domain maxtor.com):
> OK, I have a question about virii and linux. [since its being discussed]
>
> In a linux only LAN / HAN is there any NEED for a virusscanner?
No, with asterisks. ;->
It's easy to write Linux viruses. It's difficult to get Linux users to
execute them (especially as a privileged user). It's extremely
non-trivial to get them to spread that way, such that in practic it
doesn't happen.
The reasons are partly system and application design, and partly user
culture. The two are of course entwined.
Discussions of this topic tend to be marred by OS-advocacy and knee-jerk
views. After I got tired of such discussions, I wrote the four essays
beginning here: http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#virus
I would maintain that virus-scanners are needed on Win32 and MacOS
_either_ -- in the vanishingly rare cases where users are willing to
assume responsibility for what code they choose to run. They're a
crutch for the willfully hapless.
-- Cheers, There are only 10 types of people in this world -- Rick Moen those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't. rick at domain linuxmafia.com
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