Antivirus forlinux mint cinnamon rafaela 17.2
 

Hi, I am completely new to linux, I have searched lots of information and have read lots, I can not figure out which antivirus is available for this version. I know it is debian based, simular to ubuntu 14,uses ubuntu depositories. I have tried comodo, avast which neither will not work or I am doing something wrong. Perhaps using instructions that do not apply? Could someone direct me on which one will work and instructions. I used instructions in tutorial for linux mint on mint community website. Each try using terminal, error comes back, not found.
Being a previous windows user (for years), I really want some way of checking for malware or viruses.
Thank you, help appreciated, thanks for this forum. lilly1

lilly1,

Welcome to LQ.

Have a look at this thread, in particular post #13 from Thor 2.0:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...lp-4175553301/

You can always use ClamAV, but in the light of the above, you may feel that it is not really required.

ClamAV:

http://www.clamav.net/index.html

It is a good idea to enable a firewall.

In Terminal type:

GNU/Linux does not usually rely on "anti-virus" programs to protect itself. It does so through various other means, some of which might be built in, such as, apparmor and or daemons that look for rootkits. In addition it uses permissions and up-to-date software that is timely fixed so that it is less likely to be compromised.
Precautions like emptying cache files are probably good idea like setting the browser to not remember history.
People tend to run Windows as "root", or administrator, which gives full access to that profile while hopefully restricting access to system files but you still need to access the original Windows Administrator profile to fix the corrupt profile (if this happens), assuming that the virus has not already corrupted that software.

Fred

I've been a Mint user for 6 years now, and had no problems with viruses.

Having said that, mainly out of curiosity, I ran clamav today (available in the Software Manager, with ClamTk as a GUI). It picked up a phishing file in my Google Chrome cache, and a few old junk emails (in Claws), and a few PUA (potentially unwanted application) dll & sys files in /usr/lib/mono. (I never use mono anyway.)
I deleted them (obviously you have to be root to delete anything in /usr) with no ill effects, everything still running very nicely.

So, although Linux is largely virus free, an occasional clamscan may give a little peace of mind.

Hi...

ClamAV can also be installed from the repositories using the Synaptic Package Manager, although I'm not sure if there is a GUI package/frontend for it. :)

Regards...

re clamscan,

I have found some nasties in .cache folder using clamtk they are usually directed at Msoft and will not affect you directly but you don't want them there. One way of lessoning the risk of getting this stuff is to set your browser to not record "history" and delete such on exit. Just make sure you bookmark sites you want to return to.
Nasties that target 'Linux' are likely to be more sophisticated than those that show up on antivirus scans. Anywhere you let stuff in might be favorite, like emails or downloads.

Fred.

I use AVG for Linux, mostly because I promised myself a long time ago in my DOS days never to connect a computer to the internet that was not running an AV.

If it were not for that promise, I'd likely not use an AV on Linux.

Antivirus For Linux Mint
 

Thanks all of you for the information posted since I asked this first question.
My 2007 Dell Pentium laptop started freezing up using the 17.2 Linux mint Rafaela. I read lots of information, documentation said it was good, but for newer hardware,I decided it was too large for my older laptop. I downloaded, burned and installed a copy of LXLE/LXDE,it had TkClam preloaded. My laptop is working much better, it is more stable and faster.
I do really like Linux Mint and when I purchase a newer laptop,I will plan to use it in the future. Thank you, lilly1

Hi lilly1...

You're welcome, glad we could help. :)

Regards...