On Sun, 2004-06-06 at 08:34, Sid Boyce wrote:
Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS wrote:
What viruses?
Lucky fellow! You've not heard of Windows then, wish I hadn't and I rarely touch it, then only with heavy gloves and mask that barely lets you breathe. The issue of viruses arises -- Windows is wide open, so viruses spread however they are passed on. If a Windows machine passes on a virus in an email to a Linux box and then the Linux box does nothing with it and just passes it on to Windows boxes that get cratered, Linux gets the BLAME. If a Windows box gets a virus, does nothing with it and passes it on to other Windows boxes, then the end users of the Windows boxes get the BLAME. Spot the important difference ?. Linux is there to protect Windows, a-la-MS having to hide their sites behind Linux ISP's to protect them from attack, that explains why anti-virus software on Linux is
You wouldn't happen to have a source for that MS hiding behind Linux would you?
necessary, like the guy from Symantec ranted on in London the other day, though his rationale was that Linux was just as or more insecure than Windows, just that it's not a big enough target, so we needed to feed his industry, so when Linux is a big enough target and we wake up from our slumber, we will have their support and superior knowledge to fix the unfixed bugs after they have cratered our boxes. Scary, but I don't have the cash to support that industry. To the guy who asked the original question, there are a number of anti-virus solutions that run on Linux to protect Windows, a google search on Linux anti-virus would yeild many hits. I don't go to any anti-virus church and I'm a disbeliever. Regards Sid.
Oddly enough there is a Linux based pay for it anti-Virus scanner. I think it's intended when the box is used as a mail transport agent. The name escapes me, but I remember seeing the vendor's name on a number of mother board cd's. Mike