Schneier on Security: Is Antivirus Dead?

 

Bottom line: antivirus software is neither necessary nor sufficient for security, but it's still a good idea. It's not a panacea that magically makes you safe, nor is it is obsolete in the face of current threats. As countermeasures go, it's cheap, it's easy, and it's effective. I haven't dumped my antivirus program, and I have no intention of doing so anytime soon.

Schneier on Security: Is Antivirus Dead?

Speaking of anti-virus, I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials since its release about a month or so ago, and its been working great so far.

First Virus

I was confused to read this:

A reporter just called me and wanted to talk about my virus, Elk Cloner, that I wrote back in 1982, when I was in the 9th grade.

I had the distinct impression that the first computer virus was the Brain virus, and I was pretty proud of the fact. It was written by a Pakistani, and I'm a Pakistani! Or at least a variant of it was.

After digging around a little, I found this entry by Bruce Schneier which explained that Brain might have been the first PC virus. But the Elk Cloner was written for the Apple II, hence, its the first computer virus. Cool, I'm fine with Brain being the first PC virus! :)

The strange thing is that Bruce Schneier's entry celebrates 20 years of the ElkCloner Virus, and the entry is from last year! Hmmm...