[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux AntiVirus

[terry]

Thomas Cameron wrote:
>>Ralph Miller wrote:
>>
>>>Is there antivirus software for Linux as Norton is for
>>>Windows?  If not, is Linux bare or what do you
>>>recommend?
>>
>>What's a virus?   I've never even seen one!   They tell
>>me not to open attachments - but I happily ignore that
>>and click on those 'document.zip' files that come from
>>those friendly people who keep saying "Hi!".  Dunno what
>>all the fuss is about!
>>
>>But seriously...
>>
>>There aren't any Linux viruses - so there isn't really a
>>need to defend against them.
> 
> 
> Not technically true - http://librenix.com/?inode=21
> 
> 
>>What you MIGHT need is a
>>package to filter mail that passes through a Linux-based
>>gateway/firewall to protect the lame Windows boxes that
>>are hiding behind it.  But if you read your mail on your
>>Linux box, you have zero worries.
> 
> 
> I personally believe that virus and spam filtering is very veryimportant
> if you run a Linux mail server. 

Sure it is, if you need to protect MS systems.
     As to the question of a Virus or Worm causing problems on a Linux
system, while it's theoretically possible to make a linux virus, in
practice, you will never see one. Part of the problem is most people
don't even know what a virus is, but I will spare y'all the boring
details. This is the best accounting of virus's I came across:

  	       Linux 	Windows
Viruses 	30 	70,000
Worms 	      70 	100,000
Trojans 	130 	300,000
(Trogans: hard to restrict because a trojan could be defined as any
executable which does something you don't want it to.)

Of course, the linux virus's were mostly lab creations which never
entered the "wild". (quoted from previous post here, on DFWLUG:Discuss)