Assessing the Effectiveness of Antivirus Solutions (Linux, installed, work, software)

[plwhit]

A study that methinks most of us will agree with.....

The initial detection rate of a newly created virus is less than 5%. Although vendors try to update their detection mechanisms, the initial detection rate of new viruses is nearly zero. We believe that the majority of antivirus products on the market can’t keep up with the rate of virus propagation on the Internet.

Warning: URL is a PDF file.

http://www.imperva.com/docs/HII_Asse..._Solutions.pdf

[EscapeCalifornia]

This is why I run NoScript.

[southseeker]

If you are one of those, that can't give up looking at strange sites, looking at them in a virtual machine is always an option!

But yea, ABP+NOSCript will probably kill most of your malware issues along with being smart in general about where you go. I've never installed an anti-virus on any of the computers I've built. A few mal-ware issues here and there, but never nothing completely devastating. I also never got infected by a real virus either.

[macroy]

NYT article around the same study: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/te...ewanted=2&_r=0

[dijkstra]

They can only respond to zero day viruses so fast....it is up to the user to take the proper precautions. The best way to peruse the internet if you must go to possibly dangerous sites is to use a Linux Live CD.