So just what is Anti-Virus software for?
I have had anti-virus software installed on all of my computers for years now and I’ve never caught a virus but I’m not at all sure that this is because anti-virus software actually does any good.
Sure, my incoming email often contains viral infections but none of them (get that – none of them) have ever passed the Spam filters ever since they were put in place more than two years ago. Plus, an irregular inspection of the messages carrying the software infections convinces me that I would never be dumb enough to click on the package even if my Spam filters let me down.
OK, I do get sent MS Office documents and bitmap files during the working day and I suppose one of those files could have become infected at source but truthfully when was the last time you got sent a virus laden email from a known corporate source? There was a time when one of my clients always sent me the latest and greatest in viruses just about as soon as they hit the Internet but those days are past.
Is anti-virus software any good at spotting viruses anyway? Well no – says a lot of recent research. Despite seeming glowing reviews in the computer press a great number of anti-virus products detect a worryingly low percentage of the software viruses presented to them in independent testing. None of them detect them all. There is frequently a high level of false positives to contend with – with your anti-virus software denying you access to perfectly innocent content.
See here for test results for a sample of anti-virus products. These results are not atypical.
Is anti-virus software an effective barrier to such threats as the “Storm Worm” – well no says no less an authority than Bruce Schneier. The only protection is to NOT CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENT on the email you just received.
What happens if your anti-virus software detects a virus? I have been called by friends who could not stop themselves clicking on that “see the bouncing bunnies” tag to help out when this has happened. What happens is that the anti-virus software detects the virus and is then unable to do anything about it – it gets stuck trying to delete the file in question – often failing even to remove registry entries. OK – someone with a reasonable level of technical expertise can deal with this but the general public can’t. What worries me here is that it looks to me like anti-virus software might have some value on a Windows machine being run by Joe Public but that it all to often fails to meet the requirements of that key user group.
The only time that my anti-virus software has detected a threat was when it spotted that some text files on my hard drive had a similar name to a known virus – so the software kindly tried to block my access to my own data. Potential threat – zero – inconvenience level – high.
What impact does anti-virus software have on all that expensive hardware you have deployed? If you are using a Mac or Linux probably none as you are probably not using such software. If you are using Windows then take a look at this PCSpy article the highlights of which I reproduce below – with additional thanks to Coding Horror for this quotation.
The problem is that the “dancing bunnies” still attract the general public and the operating system security in general use (versions of MS Windows) are ineffective in protecting them from such foolishness. So perhaps there is a case to be made for encouraging “Aunt Maude” to persists in running up-to-date anti-virus software even if the protection is far from complete.
However the issue is rather different for us developers. There really seems no rational case for continuing to run (and presumably pay for) this class of software on our machines. For us, anti-virus software is all “downside” with no discernible benefits.
I have had anti-virus software installed on all of my computers for years now and I’ve never caught a virus but I’m not at all sure that this is because anti-virus software actually does any good.
Sure, my incoming email often contains viral infections but none of them (
OK, I do get sent MS Office documents and bitmap files during the working day and I suppose one of those files could have become infected at source but truthfully when was the last time you got sent a virus laden email from a known corporate source? There was a time when one of my clients always sent me the latest and greatest in viruses just about as soon as they hit the Internet but those days are past.
Is anti-virus software any good at spotting viruses anyway? Well no – says a lot of recent research. Despite seeming glowing reviews in the computer press a great number of anti-virus products detect a worryingly low percentage of the software viruses presented to them in independent testing. None of them detect them all. There is frequently a high level of false positives to contend with – with your anti-virus software denying you access to perfectly innocent content.
See here for test results for a sample of anti-virus products. These results are not atypical.
Is anti-virus software an effective barrier to such threats as the “Storm Worm” – well no says no less an authority than Bruce Schneier. The only protection is to NOT CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENT on the email you just received.
What happens if your anti-virus software detects a virus? I have been called by friends who could not stop themselves clicking on that “see the bouncing bunnies” tag to help out when this has happened. What happens is that the anti-virus software detects the virus and is then unable to do anything about it – it gets stuck trying to delete the file in question – often failing even to remove registry entries. OK – someone with a reasonable level of technical expertise can deal with this but the general public can’t. What worries me here is that it looks to me like anti-virus software might have some value on a Windows machine being run by Joe Public but that it all to often fails to meet the requirements of that key user group.
The only time that my anti-virus software has detected a threat was when it spotted that some text files on my hard drive had a similar name to a known virus – so the software kindly tried to block my access to my own data. Potential threat – zero – inconvenience level – high.
What impact does anti-virus software have on all that expensive hardware you have deployed? If you are using a Mac or Linux probably none as you are probably not using such software. If you are using Windows then take a look at this PCSpy article the highlights of which I reproduce below – with additional thanks to Coding Horror for this quotation.
| Percent Slower | ||||
| Software Name | Boot | CPU | Disk | |
| Norton Internet Security 2006 | 46% | 20% | 2369% | |
| McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8 | 7% | 20% | 2246% | |
| Norton Internet Security 2007 | 45% | 8% | 1515% | |
| Trend Micro PC-cillin AV 2006 | 2% | 0% | 1288% | |
| ZoneAlarm ISS | 16% | 0% | 992% | |
| Norton Antivirus 2002 | 11% | 8% | 658% | |
| Windows Live OneCare | 11% | 8% | 512% | |
| Webroot Spy Sweeper | 6% | 8% | 369% | |
| Nod32 v2.5 | 7% | 8% | 177% | |
| avast! 4.7 Home | 4% | 8% | 115% | |
| Windows Defender | 5% | 8% | 54% | |
| Panda Antivirus 2007 | 20% | 4% | 15% | |
| AVG 7.1 Free | 15% | 0% | 19% | |
The problem is that the “dancing bunnies” still attract the general public and the operating system security in general use (versions of MS Windows) are ineffective in protecting them from such foolishness. So perhaps there is a case to be made for encouraging “Aunt Maude” to persists in running up-to-date anti-virus software even if the protection is far from complete.
However the issue is rather different for us developers. There really seems no rational case for continuing to run (and presumably pay for) this class of software on our machines. For us, anti-virus software is all “downside” with no discernible benefits.
posted by Mike Griffiths | 5:01 AM
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