I am new to Linux/Ubuntu and am wondering about virus protection and spyware cleanup
I understand there are far fewer virus created for Linux, but is it a good idea to have some protection anyway? and what about spyware? thanks. Jason

There is, currently, no spyware for Linux. As far as virus protection goes, there are few (if any) active viruses targeting Linux. This does not mean that there will never be viruses though. If you plan on sharing files with Windows computers then a virus guard is essential. Try ClamAV or F-Prot - both have clients for Linux.

thank you for the quick response

You need virus protection and spyware cleanup like a fish needs a bicycle.

Cheers.

@jasonsexton:

If you want 'real-time' on access virus scanning look into the "dazuko" module in apt/get.

That is a requirement if you want to use either clam-av or 'antivir' antivirus.

I use antivir on slackware and it works like a charm.

I presently have clam-av and I think I may change over to antivir.

Regarding spyware: presently there is none? or so we all think, or even how would we know to be honest. No one can say, and I personally think it's a matter of when. That said be sure to turn off javascript in your browser. Firefox has an 'extension' called 'no-script' which is really nice. You see in linux, it's not the spyware's that get you, it's the scripts. The extension is nice because you can quickly advise whether or not to allow scripts to run on a website or not.

Also check into chkrootkit, rkscanner, nessus too.

Also ubuntu doesn't have a firewall installed by default. It's a good idea to run one even if you have a firewall/router. You can apt/get 'firestarter' works in gnome. Also there is guarddog (needs kde) and kymyfirewall (needs kde) they're all user friendly.


@NoStop: While I agree with what you said to a certain extent , Jason didn't mention if he is dual-boot with windows sharing a fat volume, or is samba shared to other pc's at his house. So his request is possibly quite understandable, because as gnu/linux becomes more popular this may be an issue. Especially as the fstab in ubuntu doesn't stop exec on partitons in fstab by default. And if he exports home over samba to another machine, well, there you go...