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Tasmanian Dept. of Education Wants Anti-Virus for Linux, OS X
An anonymous reader writes "One of Australia's largest government technology buyers, the Tasmanian Department of Education, has gone to market for a security vendor to supply anti-virus software for its 40,000-odd desktop PCs and laptops, as well as servers. But the department's not just running Windows — it runs Mac OS X and Linux as well, and has requested that whatever solution it buys must be able to run on those platforms as well. But have we reached the stage were Mac OS X and Linux even need third-party security software? It seems like most Mac and Linux users don't run it."
Anti-virus is a security last resort. If you've already downloaded or executed malware, then anti-virus might prevent it from running, or might be able to remove it if it already has. But it can't detect everything. It can only detect common malware. Linux doesn't have any common malware, and I'm not sure about Mac. There is clamav, but that's mostly detecting Windows viruses across platforms.
One additional advantage(in institutional setups, home users are screwed) is that the presence of AV requires the designers of viruses to make a choice: Either you attempt to lay low, and take the risk that a future update of the AV package will detect your virus, or you go all cyber-AIDS on the system and attempt to throw a spanner in the AV system or its update mechanism. In the latter case, the client generally stops responding to the AV management server, which throws up a major red flag. At that point, you either pull the system aside for a more detailed chat, or nuke it, depending on your priorities.
It's like trying to scare off ninjas by deploying mall cops. The mall cops are hopelessly outmatched; but they will, on occasion, stumble across a ninja, which forces the ninjas to either passively risk detection or actively start killing the mall cops, which alerts you to their presence.