anti virus & firewall?

[hiro]

I have been using Kubuntu for a few weeks now and this is my first serious attempt to get it to work. With a bit of help from the people on the forum i now have it doing all the same jobs i need it for.
As the linux box is the most stable i wish to use it all the time and just keep the windoze box for games and high end cad but i am worried by security issues. For windoze i use firewalls,anti vurus and other security products like spyware removers etc.
So finally my question is, how secure is linux? Do i need any form of protection and if so how much and which is the best.

[kubicle]

Re: anti virus & firewall?

1. Firewall
The default installation of (k)ubuntu doesn't have any ports listening to the outside world, so a firewall is not a necessity. However, if you plan on running servers on your machine a firewall is of course a good idea. Also if you wish to 'hide' your machine on the internet, set up a firewall. The easiest way to set one up is to use a graphical configuration tool (The firewall itself is built-in), popular firewall configuration tools include 'guarddog' and 'firestarter' (both available from the repositories).

2. Viruses and malware
There aren't many viruses or malware for linux, and they aren't very contagious. The best protection is not to install software from untrusted sources. There are antivirus software available for linux (like clamav/klamav), but they are mainly used to scan windows partitions, windows computers on networks and email to prevent spreading of viruses.

[Tynach]

Re: anti virus & firewall?

The greatest thing about Linux is that , if you don't run a server, you don't need either of them!

[hiro]

Re: anti virus & firewall?

The linux box will be sharing files with a three windoze systems although some of these may soon be running linux if all goes well. They all access the internet through a router so there is always a chance of infection if only through one of the others systems.
I guess i will do as others do, how many of you actually use firewalls & anti viruses and how many don't? How about a mini poll?
Thanks, Hiro.

[Tynach]

Re: anti virus & firewall?

Yeah, but the thing is that viruses that affect Windows will NOT affect Linux. So, if all your Windows machines get a nasty Trojan, Linux is perfectly fine.

[kubicle]

Re: anti virus & firewall?

Yeah, but the thing is that viruses that affect Windows will NOT affect Linux. So, if all your Windows machines get a nasty Trojan, Linux is perfectly fine.

Then again, in such a situation it might be nice to clean those win machines from the linux system

The linux box will be sharing files with a three windoze systems although some of these may soon be running linux if all goes well. They all access the internet through a router so there is always a chance of infection if only through one of the others systems.
I guess i will do as others do, how many of you actually use firewalls & anti viruses and how many don't? How about a mini poll?

I'd recommend having some sort of firewall up, simply because if you're not a 'hardened veteran', you might install a package that includes a server that listens to ports while you're testing out software and going through the 'I wonder what that software does' -phase.

That said, if you have a router between your machines and the internet, you might not need a separate firewall on each machine (depends on the capabilities and setup of your router)

As for the antivirus, it's up to you, I haven't had a need for one on desktop linux systems.