antivirus

On Wednesday 23 May 2001 01:14 am, foodog wrote about Re: antivirus:

> Mostly serious. Linux is (for various reasons) pretty much free of
> file infectors that used to plague DOS and Windows . In recent
> history most Windows vermin in the wild are either Visual BASIC
> scripts or MS Office Macros, neither of which work under Linux.
> There are a couple (maybe a few?) Linux file infectors. If they're
> run by an ordinary user, not root, they don't have much chance of
> spreading to other programs on a reasonably configured system.
>

I received the ha,ha,ha, sleeping............virus in my email tonight.
I deleted it of course. I looked the headers and it appeared to me that
someone had my address in their address book. I did not see evidence of
any listserv that I belong to. That is why I started a concern about it.

> Linux has had several _worms_ running around lately (Ramen, Lion,
> cheese). That's another serious matter and addressed case-by-case -
> that is, I'm not aware of anyone peddling an antivirus for Linux
> except something that scans for Windows viruses; in email
> attachments, for example. The Linux worms that I've seen exploit
> network services that should have been patched months ago. Your best
> bet is to not run services you don't need, and make sure that you
> keep your system updated as vulnerabilities are uncovered. Check the
> errata page for your distribution for a start.
>

Since I use RedHat 7.1, it has the online update errata that you speak
of. I have kept up with that. Nice thing about RedHat is that the
update is automatic after it is user initiated.

Sounds like a good firewall is most important then. I got one that came
with RH and then I tried to install PMFirewall and it didn't install
properly, I am assuming it is because RH already had the settings up.

> Unfortunately(?) security can eat as much time as you're able to
> give.
>
> BTW, for Windows systems F-Secure really is excellent, IMO. HTH,

I have the freebee IT Inoculate in my laptop which has MS in it.


>
> Steve

Thank you very much.

Jim.