

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

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fossuser
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.

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prawn
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.

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

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mkramlich
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.

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andre3k1
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).

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

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there
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.

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amock
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.

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

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mikeknoop
Yes but the underlying problem here is the your non-technical person on a Mac
_does_ need some sort of education or anti-virus. It's further building onto
the illusions that Mac OS is invulnerable to viruses and spyware.

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orangecat
_your non-technical person on a Mac does need some sort of education or anti-
virus_

Education yes, antivirus no. There are roughly zero active Mac viruses; the
real threat is phishing.

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

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nitrogen
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.

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houseabsolute
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.

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nitrogen
I don't disagree with you, and for what it's worth, I don't run antivirus
software either unless I notice suspicious disk or network activity. Since I
don't run untrusted binaries, use Adblock, Flashblock, and Firefox, keep my
computer up to date, and avoid visiting unknown or potentially-risky web
sites, I never have any problems. My point was that antivirus "believers" may
not believe you.

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crististm
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/>

