Anti Virus Heresy

I thought I was pushing it when I decided that the costs outweighed the benefits in deciding to not install anti virus on our Apple iBook. The risks simply seem minuscule for Mac OSX users considering our environment: we keep the latest OS patched; we run [almost*] all Apple software including Safari, Mail, Preview, AppleWorks, Pages and Keynote; we have the Apple firewall enabled and keep Bluetooth off unless in use. I had been religiously using anti virus software for over a dozen years and have consistently noticed the ill effects of using AV software (as well as the hard costs). So it feels a bit like I am trying to remove my helmet when in the cold deep vacuum of outer space.

Then I figure I was pushed over the edge... My fairly new 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 system has become noticeably slower - nay, painfully slower - since applying Win XP SP2 and the latest in AV "Internet Suites" (and anti-Spyware). I wonder if security orthodoxy requires sacrificing your hardware each year to be able to get something done in a reasonable amount of time.

So my 7 year old son received a Compaq Armada 266 MHz laptop from a relative. It had Windows ME on it and was suffering so I reformatted it with Windows 98 SE in order to get that original snappy performance (since I remember not long ago 266 was a speed demon compared to that old stuff we used to run). I installed a fresh OS onto a clean drive and then proceeded to patch the OS and installed a commercial AV product. The laptop was so slow as to be unusable again. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I uninstalled the AV software and the laptop actually runs fairly well (IE 6 and Outlook Express installed).

Now before anyone else considers this... I did consider the risks and the operational environment: my son's e-mail account is restricted so that it only accepts e-mail from a handful of trusted people; he doesn't browse the Internet; we have a hardware firewall on our home network; I am careful about only giving him software that is from reputable sources (currently he runs Yahtzee and Monopoly). We also realize that this system can be sacrificed if it gets infected - but my it runs very nicely now!

What say you - reasonable or ridiculous?
Or am I jeopardizing my security credentials?

* We have installed and run Windows Media Player on rare occasion

Comments

[Pete]

Security should never win out over functionality - it defeats the purpose in the first place. If you are still worried about security, you might try eSet antivirus or Faronics Deepfreeze, which maintains a gold config. Good Luck.

[Dan tdaxp]

Good choice. Modern AV products seem to try to be unusual. I guess they are afraid that some idiot CEO will actively sabotage it, get a virus, and tell everyone "Avoid such-and-such, [because of my idiocy] I got a virus from them."

So they take a zero-defects mentality, and sacrifice everything to security. The security-fundementalists who all too often write columns in IT journals enable this.

MacAffee back in '95 was great. I wouldn't consider putting Norton on a computer now, tho.

[Gabriel Mihalache]

If you have a reliable hardware firewall (to combat internet worms) and avoid executing anything from unreliable sources (to prevent virus/adware/spyware infection) you should be fine. Let's try to remember that there's only a limited number way a computer can get compromised.

On Windows XP you can try using a limited account for everyday tasks and only loging-in as an administrator for maintemance tasks. Regarding Mac OS X, I agree. I'm very pleased with by elderly Titanium Powerbook and I was never in a position to worry about security.

[Saar Drimer]

20 years later, after a few mandatory drinks at the Passover Sedder, your son will tell you how he defeated your attempts to prevent him from surfin' the net... and how he knew your all of your passwords...