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ghacks post: "Why I decided to uninstall my Antivirus software"

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mouser:
Martin over at ghacks writes about why he still uses an antivirus program occasionally but no longer keeps one running in the background.

It's not a crazy idea, and i've been tempted to do the same.  In the end I've opted to keep an antivirus program running in the background and just accepting the small performance hit and occasional system slowdown from antivirus scanning.

The truth is though, as Martin points out, i know that my basic system is safe, and scanning all my files all the time seems wasteful.  When new files come in the mail, i would know enough to scan them manually even if i didn't have a background resident scanner.

Anyone else out there sufficiently brave and confident in their security policies to not run an antivirus tool?


http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/19/why-i-decided-to-uninstall-my-antivirus-software/

Lashiec:
My experience is that people who went "I don't need antivirus software" for a time came running asking for antivirus software. Of course, this changes depending on the usage you're giving to your computer, but even being prudent like Martin suggests and refraining yourself of taking up risks can give problems. Recent attacks to security forums show this, and considering that malware can be sent along normal JavaScript is better to be safe than to be sorry. Being a somewhat paranoid guy with something behind to protect you if disaster strikes it's the better thing to do IMO.

Apart from that, a well written post that does not fall in the anti antivirus zealotry (or trolling) ;D

mouser:
It may be misleading to advocate *uninstalling* an antivirus tool.

In my mind, the interesting debate is whether you should have one running all the time as a background resident scanning process examining every file opened, or whether you should just use an antivirus as an on-demand scanner.

Lashiec:
I suppose that you would have to decide between the convenience of having something guarding you against performance impact and wether your antivirus affects your work on the computer to the point that you'll prefer having it disabled. Of course, you also have to take in account personal preference, hardware, computer literacy and antivirus software.

nontroppo:
mouser: because you can't know if your OS or applications have vulnerabilities. Perhaps just visiting a web site may be enough to trigger something. It is not only about running unknown applications, but that your known apps may have issues waiting for exploits.

And don't forget gremlins can often surf illicit sites while you are asleep...

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