Questions

[Graham Todd]

On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:57:31 -0700
Thomas <valhalla2100 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Are you sure that there is no need for anti-virus & trojans
> protections? I am now using Ubuntu because my other computer, which
> had the Comcast provided McAfee (sp) on it was hit.  Since that awful
> time I learned first from my neighbor that her computer was infected
> in the same week and learned of two others. One who was using Norton.
[snipped]

Most viruses and trojans are written for Windows systems.  You *could*
get a Windows virus on your computer and to avoid sending it to a
Windows user, you might think about installing something like ClamAV,
which is very efficient.  My wife uses the Windows version, ClamWin, on
her Windows box to great effect. But then you might take the view that
Windows users should look out for their own security.

It is theoretically possible for a Linux virus to be produced, but
AFAIK there are none "in the wild", and the way Linux  So the answer is
that there is no need for anti-virus software on your computer, but you
may choose to run it to assist other (Windows) users.

More pernicious in many ways are rootkits. For a full explanation of
these see http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/127202/2/ and look
up the various references. Install rootkit hunter and run at least
daily and you should be OK.

-- 

Graham Todd