PC Advisor: Why most Antivirus doesn't work (well)

EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT: The Myths of Security

By John Viega
February 4, 2010

Almost everybody runs AV, or at least they think they do. On Windows, over 90 percent of all people are running AV, and the number of people who think they are is even higher.

It's far more pervasive than any other end user technology, and is far more common in people's lives than the only other security technology with fairly widespread ubiquity - the firewall.

It amazes a lot of people that AV technology is so ubiquitous, because it is so widely reviled. Technical people will often claim that AV doesn't work, and that it causes stability problems. And almost everyone will claim that it slows your machine down.

First, let's look at what AV is and how the typical technology works, then we'll look at the huge pit of suck and why those problems are there.

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