Awareness

Experts Only: Time to Ditch the Antivirus?

It's definitely not the right move for the average computer user, but some security experts claim they have found better security by disabling the AV and relying on other controls and behaviors.

By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor

Zach Lanier, senior network security analyst at Harvard Business School, noted the debate over AV effectiveness isn't new, but the past few years have been increasingly difficult for traditional approaches to malware protection. Most of the current AV options lag behind in updates, have detection engines that are trivial to bypass, and sometimes are themselves vulnerable, he said. He also considers himself savvy enough to skip antivirus on his own systems in favor of other security options like sandboxing and mandatory access control.

But Lanier echoed the point that in the larger environment, AV remains a necessary weapon in the security arsenal.

"While I support efforts to scrutinize the efficacy of AV and fix it, it's what we've got to work with right now, and I'd be remiss not to utilize antivirus/antimalware as a tool in my arsenal to help protect non-tech-savvy end users," he said.

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