Why antivirus is important on Linux as well
With Linux becoming a more popular alternative Operating System I thought I’d write a bit about antivirus on Linux. It is commonly know that Windows has a lot of viruses and while Windows based systems are perfectly capable of defending themselves against virus attacks, at least after the release of Windows Vista if properly configured and used. In other words do not run as admin but as a normal user, keep your system up to date and use your common sense. I generally advise people to use an updated antivirus product on Windows based systems just for the extra peace of mind.
I am however kind of shocked that a big percentage of the Linux community thinks it is perfectly fine to run a Linux operating system without antivirus or antimalware software. While it is true that most of the virus and malware nastiness is written towards Windows based systems and generally do no harm to a Linux based system there are still some viruses for Linux and for that reason alone I would consider running antivirus and anti malware software on Linux based operating systems as well.
There is however a much more important reason to use antimalware on Linux and that is the one of being a good internet citizen. How many people do you know that use Windows? And how many of those people regularly sent you email, documents or other sorts of data? While most of this data sent from Windows machines will be clean, or at least I hope so. An infected email or document sent to you can still contain a payload if the antivirus product of the Windows user was not up to date, not running or the system was compromised. Now imagine you sent this received payload to an unsuspecting Windows user? In fact you just sent a dangerous file while you could have prevented this by running antivirus and antimalware software yourself! I can tell you if the Windows user in question does not have adequate protection he or she will not be happy with you, even if the payload is detected on the Windows users system and did no harm he or she still will not be happy you did not run any antivirus or antimalware software to prevent him or her from becoming infected.
In my opinion running Linux based systems or therefore any kind of Operating System without at least basic antivirus and malware protection is cocky at best and irresponsible at worst. Even if the chance is big you will not be infected yourself you still have a responsibility to other users. Be a good internet citizen and run antivirus and malware software on non Windows operating systems as well and you will make a lot of people happy and the internet a safer place for everyone.
