No anti-virus software? No Internet connection

http://www.news.com.au/technology/no-anti-virus-software-no-internet-connection/story-e6frfro0-1225882656490

by pufuwozu • 16 years ago

16 24 16 years ago

news.com.au

gonehome• 16 years ago

Anti-virus software is not going to fix the problem when the users are the problem, mandating it will just annoy more advanced users who find anti-virus slow and unnecessary. Australia really needs to back off their internet regulation ideas, they're terrible.

prawn• 16 years ago

Yes, that is a poor idea (and Australia has been full of those for years now) but the concept of restricting access if your PC is compromised isn't awful and would have to be worth discussing further.

david• 16 years ago

It's probably good for the AV-software manufacturers though.

pan692• 16 years ago

Its another good example of the Australian governments patronising attitude towards their citizens/inmates.

there• 16 years ago

there are already some universities in the states and canada that require its users to have anti-virus software installed before they can use the campus wireless network. i'm not sure how they handle mac users.

amock• 16 years ago

At the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Macs get on the network without any checking. So if you spoof your useragent you can bypass the check.

Naga• 16 years ago

If someone knows how to spoof a useragent, they probably don't need virus protection anyways.

obsaysditto• 16 years ago

Implementing it in the fall at Villanova http://www.villanovan.com/software-to-monitor-network-1.1342...

mattwdelong• 16 years ago

Worked as a residential network coordinator at the University of New Brunswick. I can confirm this to be accurate. I can also confirm that it does not help things ONE bit.

sprout• 16 years ago

I've lived in housing for 3 separate Universities in the states.

At all of them, Linux machines were allowed to connect to the network without any fuss, and presumably Macs too. Windows machines were required to install university-provided anti-virus.

There was one little problem where the detection software they were using was checking for SMB support, and I got blocked because my Linux box had something running like that, but I called support and they worked it out.

Qz• 16 years ago

Carnegie Mellon does the same thing.

pan692• 16 years ago

If I really want/have to I can relatively easy change university. However, changing country is not that simple.

Every large corporation I've worked for had similar rules and regulations and I left each and every one of them because of it.

houseabsolute2• 16 years ago

As far as I know I have never been infected and I've been running Windows without antivirus for the last five years.

nitrogen2• 16 years ago

Be careful with "as far as I know" -- since you haven't been running any virus detection software, you could well be infected. Of course, the risk of undetected infection for technically advanced users doesn't go down when antivirus software is installed, as advanced users know how to avoid the common or visible viruses.

narag• 16 years ago

...since you haven't been running any virus detection software, you could well be infected

Most virus nowadays are intended to do something over the net. If there aren't connections attempts, no CPU activity, no disk access, one could think that the machine doesn't host a spambot.

houseabsolute2• 16 years ago

Right. Well, the other thing is I have seen no evidence of it outside of my computer. It seems like if I was infected with anything significantly dangerous I'd have had my identity stolen by now. Of course, it could happen tomorrow, but it doesn't seem likely.

Tichy• 16 years ago

I've never been infected, running Windows for years. I also checked with a bootable Virus scanner CD from time to time.

I haven't used virus scanner ever since one of them deleted my whole email inbox. Most of the time, they do more harm than good. They could also have security holes of their own, opening new attack vectors for their attackers.

BoppreH• 16 years ago

Workarounds will be easy to find and the market for "antivirus shells", programs that pretend to be antiviruses, will actually help spread viruses.

mkramlich• 16 years ago

Is it just me or has the Australian govt gone a bit nuts with respect to the Internet in the last year or so? Every other week it seems I see a new story like this.

andre3k1• 16 years ago

Very much so. Glad to be heading back home (from Australia) in 2 weeks.

Porn is a very serious issue out here. In addition, I cannot stand paying for bandwith (switching from "unlimited" internet to pay for what you use has been an issue).

crististm• 16 years ago

So, if I have a toaster with internet connection I'll have to install an anti-virus on it? http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/in-Action/

No anti-virus software? No Internet connection

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