Virus protection question.

I've just recently swapped to Linux. I know that Linux does not need a virus protection software or firewall. However, I can't seem to understand why. Could someone be kind enough to explain to me why Linux does not require the protection?

Much appreciated!

 

It's partly through "security through obscurity"- The majority of people with computers in the world use Windows, so that's what most of the virus's/spyware, etc. is created for.

There's probably some technical reasons too, but I'm definitely not knowledgeable enough in Linux to be able to tell you, but a lot of others here are!

 

Certainly. There's an account on every linux system called "root". It's similar to Administrator on Windows, but it's much more strict about accessing/modifying system files. (ex. You or any program can't change anything when you're not on root) I'm not sure how this works architecturally though since I'm also a newbie.

Also because it is open source, there are a lot more "eyes" to look and fix possible security flaws on Linux.

 

Linux is less used and newer than other operating systems. So therefor, there are less viruses made for it.

Virus makers want to infect the most people with it. So, they target the OS'es with the most users.

 

Thanks for the info everyone!

So do you Linux users have a virus protection anyways or no?

 

There are viruses for Linux though, dont think there arent. Just less.

I dont though, no.

I Triple Boot with it, dont use it much, or ever really, but when i did, or do... I dont use any.

 

visiom88 was the closest with the right answer here. Basically Linux was built from the ground up to be a secure, multi-user system. Because of the way things are set up, it is very difficult to have a virus install itself in the system and run in the background continuously without the user knowing. And even if it is, it can't really do much to the actual system without root privileges.

Another reason linux is much harder to infect with a virus is because of how applications are installed. Almost all distros now a days use a repository system where all programs are downloaded and installed from an official source, and those that understand how to install programs outside of that route are generally tech-savvy enough to avoid installing malicious programs.

If we look at windows, it was not initially designed with security in mind, but with ease of use. It was designed to be marketed to the public, where as unix (what linux tends to base itself off) was designed at first for internal use.

Certainly, it's entirely possible to get a virus under linux (and for those above that said it's because linux is new or not used by many people, that's not why. a) Work on linux was actually started before windows 3.1 was released to the public, which was the first real 'mainstream' version of windows. b) the majority of servers on the internet run linux, these are a huge target worth plenty of $$, but are generally not infected because of how secure linux generally is) but it's just extremely difficult to do.

Security through obscurity is what Windows uses by the way, it has to do with the logic of hiding the source code so any flaws are hard to find, where as linux uses the opposite approach, have it visible to anyone so all the flaws can be quickly found and fixed.

For further reference, see: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/evilmalware.html

 

Check out Clam AV, although antivirus programs on Linux are more often used to filter malware that is meant for Windows machines.