{"id":866,"date":"2017-01-19T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.virtono.com\/?p=866"},"modified":"2017-01-19T16:49:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T14:49:59","slug":"viruses-and-linux-and-linux-antiviruses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/knowledgebase\/viruses-and-linux-and-linux-antiviruses\/","title":{"rendered":"Viruses and Linux and Linux Antiviruses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viruses and Linux<\/strong><\/p>\n

Computer viruses are pieces of software that replicate themselves on a computer. The replication means a virus is distributing itself all over your computer, making it tough to get rid of. Viruses seem to understand that there\u2019s safety in numbers. Viruses can destroy data or send it out to a malicious third party, meaning someone creepy could be viewing your passwords, your financial documents, and even your photos. Computers become infected in any number of ways, but the commonality is that the user is tricked into installing it, either by visiting a dangerous site, installing a piece of software, or downloading an email attachment.<\/p>\n

Is Linux immune to viruses?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Antivirus is an important part of Windows security but because Linux is constructed differently from Windows, it\u2019s less important. But don\u2019t interpret that as \u201cLinux is immune to viruses.\u201d It\u2019s not. (Software from repositories could, in theory, become infected with a virus, but it\u2019s highly unlikely.) But in general, Linux tends to be safer from viruses than Windows. Why? Part of it is the nature of Linux, which as we just learned, assigns permissions to users. If you\u2019re a Linux user with administrative rights, you probably know enough to avoid viruses. Contrast that with other operating systems, where it might be easy to trick anyone using the computer into installing a virus. Another part of what makes desktop Linux safer than Windows is that the market share is relatively small, not a lot of creepy people are designing viruses for it. This is not to say that getting a virus on Linux is impossible. It\u2019s not. But there\u2019s enough security between you, the knowledgeable user, and your system, which has its own protections, for you to feel reasonably safe.
\nLinux antiviruses<\/strong><\/p>\n

But what if reasonably safe isn\u2019t enough? What if you want to be exceptionally safe, like wearing suspenders and a belt? I respect your caution! Linux actually has some antivirus tools. The most popular program is called ClamAV. It\u2019s cost-free for Linux (and for Windows; the OS X version is a paid product). ClamAV detects viruses on your system that you can then remove. It\u2019s a terminalbased program but there is a graphical front-end called ClamTk<\/strong> you can install. It lets you use ClamAV as a graphical program, which is why it has a slightly different name. Some users might find the graphical program easier for configuring preferences. Let\u2019s install the graphical version and work with that.<\/p>\n

ClamTk<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Install ClamTk with sudo apt-get install clamtk.<\/p>\n

2 Update its virus definitions with the command sudo freshclam.<\/p>\n

You might get a message about your version of ClamAV being outdated. That\u2019s because Ubuntu doesn\u2019t always have the most recent version in the repositories. It\u2019s not ideal but don\u2019t worry about it for now.<\/p>\n

If you want the most recent version, you can install it from the CalmAV site: www.clamav.net\/. The virus definitions, which are used to find and identify viruses, will be up-to-date either way.<\/p>\n

Once it finishes the update (it might take a while, so this might be a good time to eat some of your lunch), launch it via the Dash. The antivirus definitions should read as Current.<\/p>\n

To run the antivirus, click the Home button, which will scan your home directory. You can configure a more specific scan by using the Scan menu (shown in the figure at right).<\/p>\n

3 When it\u2019s done, you\u2019ll get a report of files scanned and threats found.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Any viruses can be quarantined by ClamTk and manually removed by you. Just be careful that you\u2019re not deleting something important.<\/p>\n

If the file is something forwarded to you by that friend who forwards you everything, it\u2019s probably safe to assume it actually is a virus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viruses and Linux Computer viruses are pieces of software that replicate themselves on a computer. The replication means a virus is distributing itself all over your computer, making it tough to get rid of. Viruses seem to understand that there\u2019s safety in numbers. Viruses can destroy data or send it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledgebase"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/1364034317531-690x336.jpg?fit=690%2C336&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ISfL-dY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":876,"url":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/knowledgebase\/linux-security-the-user-and-superuser-concept-and-how-and-why-it-keeps-your-computer-secure\/","url_meta":{"origin":866,"position":0},"title":"Linux security : The user and superuser concept and how and why it keeps your computer secure","author":"Daniel Draga","date":"January 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Security is an important but complex topic. 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Software we think of as secure can become insecure as hackers figure out how to break though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Knowledgebase"","block_context":{"text":"Knowledgebase","link":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/category\/knowledgebase\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/linux-ransomware-wide.jpeg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/linux-ransomware-wide.jpeg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/linux-ransomware-wide.jpeg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/knowledgebase\/linux-security-running-commands-safely\/","url_meta":{"origin":866,"position":2},"title":"Linux Security: Running commands safely","author":"Daniel Draga","date":"January 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Security is an important but complex topic. 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Software we think of as secure can become insecure as hackers figure out how to break though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Knowledgebase"","block_context":{"text":"Knowledgebase","link":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/category\/knowledgebase\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/9.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/9.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/9.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/9.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.virtono.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/9.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":880,"url":"https:\/\/www.virtono.com\/community\/knowledgebase\/linux-securityfirewalls\/","url_meta":{"origin":866,"position":3},"title":"Linux Security:Firewalls","author":"Daniel Draga","date":"January 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Security is an important but complex topic. 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