The short life and hard times of a Linux virus (2005)

This article fails to point that Linux system are usually attacked by malware and rootkits, not by old-fashioned binary-file-modifying viruses.

For a recent account, see:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/04/exclusive-ongoing-ma...

Given the quantity of information like this out there, do people bother with running anti-virus on Linux servers?

It feels like something that you'd do just to err on the safe side.

One word: "compliance". A lot of security standards demand that you run an anti-virus regularly on your servers. At least the first version of PCI DSS did, and it's MasterCard and Visa precursors did.

It's checklist items like "run an anti-virus" that make "compliance" into a pudgy, flaccid, bad word.

June 10, 2000 (Updated: July 30, 2005)

Updated title to reflect this. I got the link from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus so apparently it's still considered relevant.