Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 15:51:18 -0400 From: Jim Durham <durham@jcdurham.com> To: Lee_Shackelford@dot.ca.gov, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: virus scan programs Message-ID: <200309051551.18424.durham@jcdurham.com> In-Reply-To: <OF9914DB0F.0929A256-ON88256D98.00598EA7@dot.ca.gov> References: <OF9914DB0F.0929A256-ON88256D98.00598EA7@dot.ca.gov>
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On Friday 05 September 2003 12:32 pm, Lee_Shackelford@dot.ca.gov wrote: > Dear freeBSD enthusiast, > Greetings. I am a newcomer to the BSD/Unix world. My place > of employment is a large agency with thousands of client machines. > Most of the clients use Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional > operating system. Most of the servers use either Novell operating > system, or I.B.M. Domino operating system. A very important ritual > that each client computer performs every morning at boot-up time is > to run a virus scan application program. This program is run > whether or not the user desires it, because it runs before the user > us granted a log-on screen. In my reading of Unix and BSD > literature, I have found no mention of virus scan programs for > these operating systems. Do such programs not exist? Alternately, > is the Unix/BSD approach to this problem in a different > philosophical and/or procedural sphere? If so, could you describe > the Unix/BSD approach to locating and eradicating these invaders of > one's hard drive? If the issue is already explained in either > printed literature, or posted at a world wide web site, it is > sufficient to cite the location. Many thanks for your response. As mentioned by others, *nix systems are highly virus-imune and also most viruses are written for Windows. Sophos is one virus software supplier that has a native freebsd version of their virus scanning engine. (www.sophos.com). If you wished to scan for viruses at system boot time, you could put a startup script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d to start Sophos sweep. There are other virus software companies that support *nix, but Sophos was one that I know has a FreeBSD version. -Jim
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