“Don’t need AV, we have a firewall”
A friend stopped by to ask if security suite x was any good or not. This led onto a conversation about a place she was working that wasn’t running any AV on windows machines. The rational behind this came from a 3rd party IT support guy who said “you don’t need AV on the Windows machines, the firewall will protect them”.
When I say firewall, I mean a good, old layer 3 packet filtering device. The things that cost $100 new and are, well, ADSL routers with added security aren’t able to protect a small office by themselves. Added security equals access control lists in a pretty GUI, so not really the poster boy for defense in depth.
Amazing that some IT “professionals” actually believe having a firewall will stop pc’s from getting malicious software. Thanks goodness the USB device fad never took off.
If you do not have anti-virus software on your home or small office computer, Microsoft provides a free copy you can download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
It does the job, is simple to use and doesn’t cost a penny. You want something with all the whistles and bells, pick a security suite package from any of the big names.
We now return to our regular programme.
2 Comments
Jul 13, 2010 8:54 am |
This is an interesting post. I used to work with a VERY smart network guy, and his rationale was that he also didnt need AV because he was NAT’d behind his firewall. The idea of drive-by malware and such was foreign to him! He was safe because he only downloaded his torrents from known reputable sources
It was only a matter of a week or so later that he asked me what a good AV product was for him and his children. I guess the children must have gotten his network infected at home. Damn those pesky kids!! *shakes fist*
Jul 14, 2010 2:25 pm |
I work with a few semi-pro gamers who refuse to install AV ‘cos they claim it slows down their computers. They do, however, have the router firewall configured and turned on. Will they be protected from websites and such hosting malware? Most probably not.
But I’m pretty sure one could successfully navigate the World Wild Web without AV for a month or more on a Windows computer without getting infected with malware. And likewise, one can have an “up to date” AV and still be infected. Many are.
Would I recommend installing Microsoft Security Essentials or similar product? YES.
Should one not use the Internet because AV does not exist on the computer? NO.
I think we should be educating people more on sensible surfing/computing.
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