4 ms·

Oh man....a mac with antivirus software...is your IT's mindset from the 90s?

by nix23 5y ago

kmonsen 5y ago
Google, Amazon and Facebook do that as well (at least if you include Santa as antivirus).
- nix23 5y ago
  No Santa is the right way to do it (whitelisting binary's), that's the opposite of an antivirus.
novok 5y ago
You'd be surprised about how many high profile silicon valley companies use similar software such as crowdstrike or carbon black. It's a scourge.
- xmodem 5y ago
  My work mac has both Carbon Black and FireEye. It takes 30% longer to do a large build of an open source project than my personal laptopk, despite having 2 more cores and twice the RAM.
- Macha 5y ago
  Unfortunately many big customers insist on it as part of security questionaires and depending on who audits your compliance with certain security standards, they may insist it's required too.
dirkf 5y ago
We even have McAfee on our Linux machines... And yes, doing a build is impacted by this...
- nix23 5y ago
  Holy caracho!! I understand if you have it on a file-server (bad rep if you send a MS-Word-Macrovirus to a Customer) but on a linux build server?? That's just madness!
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    Depending on the use, the server could be immune to malware and still transmit it to their clients.
    - nix23 5y ago
      Then check the binary before installation/tests if you have to, but not on the linux build server itself...that's ridiculous. A HIDS would be the the answer, so you can be ~sure that your tools are not altered to inject code into your compiled product.
      - ASalazarMX 5y ago
        I'm guessing they're covering the case where a feature or a vulnerability allows uploading Windows malware and exposing it with other users.
mavhc 5y ago
A Mac with AntiVirus software written by Microsoft.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
People apparently disagree, but I'm with you. The idea that antivirus software is actually a worthwhile mitigation tool is a relic from the 90s. Malware defeats antivirus all the time, and sometimes even exploits it directly. Meanwhile, aggressive antivirus software is eating a percentage of every single task you do on your computer, actively impeding your work every second of your day. The tradeoff is not worth it, in my professional opinion.
- mszcz 5y ago
  While I wholeheartedly agree with you, I think that putting the horrible piece of shit antivirus software on enterprise boxes is a cover-your-ass tactic. It's required from IT depts to be able to say they followed industry standard practices and did their due diligence to prevent threats, regardless of whether those have any useful, practical effects at all. My wife has a brand new corp issued Carbon X1 and I can hear it routinely spin fans 100% because of Norton FuckYourCPUandIO (tm) software doing nothing of use besides inducing anger.
- astura 5y ago
  Most companies have to have Antivirus anyway, for compliance reasons.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  Of course it's not worth it, but in many orgs it's required for compliance. It may change in the future as most people realize it's not that useful, just like NIST changed the rule about password updates. On the other hand, it might seem useless because malware creators know it's there. Basically all functional pieces of malware have to go through VirusTotal otherwise they won't be effective. But if all orgs dump antivirus software it would be a bit like giving up MMR vaccination in children.
  - nix23 5y ago
    Compliance for the sake of Compliance is just to protect ones ass and has nothing todo with security (aka no one gets fired for buying IBM)
_fat_santa 5y ago
My company recently signed a deal with a healthcare company to do some work on their systems. I got a laptop from this company, MBP 16" so not bad. But lord oh lord are there so many things on this laptop. Two worst offenders are: - Antivirus: Just hogs memory, the scan runs "throughout the day" and I've had to resort to using scripts to shut the thing down just so my code will compile. - Other annoying features: Lets make you stare at a dayglow green wallpaper and give you no way to change it to something that doesn't offend your eyes, lets place a bunch of icons on your dock and desktop that you can't get rid of, just bookmarks to common apps. Lets also make a popup show up on your laptop every day to remind you that you need to upgrade to OneDrive but forget to give me the permission to actually upgrade so this message repeats itself and fails every time.. endrant.
- tomc1985 5y ago
  "There's something wrong with your iCloud ID, please log in to fix it" popup. But hey we disabled iCloud integration so they'll never be able to actually login! (cue evil laughter)
  - Arrath 5y ago
    My work-issued iPhone wants me to verify me Apple ID password for whatever reason. By device management policy I am locked out from entering my Apple ID information again. Great success.
greedo 5y ago
Lol, we have to have it on our *nix servers as well. Despite the fact that it's almost completely useless.

Oh man....a mac with antivirus software...is your IT's mindset from the 90s?

by nix23 5y ago

Oh man....a mac with antivirus software...is your IT's mindset from the 90s?

kmonsen 5y ago

Google, Amazon and Facebook do that as well (at least if you include Santa as antivirus).

nix23 5y ago
No Santa is the right way to do it (whitelisting binary's), that's the opposite of an antivirus.

novok 5y ago

You'd be surprised about how many high profile silicon valley companies use similar software such as crowdstrike or carbon black. It's a scourge.

xmodem 5y ago
My work mac has both Carbon Black and FireEye. It takes 30% longer to do a large build of an open source project than my personal laptopk, despite having 2 more cores and twice the RAM.
Macha 5y ago
Unfortunately many big customers insist on it as part of security questionaires and depending on who audits your compliance with certain security standards, they may insist it's required too.

dirkf 5y ago

We even have McAfee on our Linux machines... And yes, doing a build is impacted by this...

nix23 5y ago
Holy caracho!! I understand if you have it on a file-server (bad rep if you send a MS-Word-Macrovirus to a Customer) but on a linux build server?? That's just madness!
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  Depending on the use, the server could be immune to malware and still transmit it to their clients.
  - nix23 5y ago
    Then check the binary before installation/tests if you have to, but not on the linux build server itself...that's ridiculous. A HIDS would be the the answer, so you can be ~sure that your tools are not altered to inject code into your compiled product.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      I'm guessing they're covering the case where a feature or a vulnerability allows uploading Windows malware and exposing it with other users.

mavhc 5y ago

A Mac with AntiVirus software written by Microsoft.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

People apparently disagree, but I'm with you. The idea that antivirus software is actually a worthwhile mitigation tool is a relic from the 90s. Malware defeats antivirus all the time, and sometimes even exploits it directly. Meanwhile, aggressive antivirus software is eating a percentage of every single task you do on your computer, actively impeding your work every second of your day. The tradeoff is not worth it, in my professional opinion.

mszcz 5y ago
While I wholeheartedly agree with you, I think that putting the horrible piece of shit antivirus software on enterprise boxes is a cover-your-ass tactic. It's required from IT depts to be able to say they followed industry standard practices and did their due diligence to prevent threats, regardless of whether those have any useful, practical effects at all. My wife has a brand new corp issued Carbon X1 and I can hear it routinely spin fans 100% because of Norton FuckYourCPUandIO (tm) software doing nothing of use besides inducing anger.
astura 5y ago
Most companies have to have Antivirus anyway, for compliance reasons.
hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
Of course it's not worth it, but in many orgs it's required for compliance. It may change in the future as most people realize it's not that useful, just like NIST changed the rule about password updates. On the other hand, it might seem useless because malware creators know it's there. Basically all functional pieces of malware have to go through VirusTotal otherwise they won't be effective. But if all orgs dump antivirus software it would be a bit like giving up MMR vaccination in children.
- nix23 5y ago
  Compliance for the sake of Compliance is just to protect ones ass and has nothing todo with security (aka no one gets fired for buying IBM)

_fat_santa 5y ago

My company recently signed a deal with a healthcare company to do some work on their systems. I got a laptop from this company, MBP 16" so not bad. But lord oh lord are there so many things on this laptop. Two worst offenders are: - Antivirus: Just hogs memory, the scan runs "throughout the day" and I've had to resort to using scripts to shut the thing down just so my code will compile. - Other annoying features: Lets make you stare at a dayglow green wallpaper and give you no way to change it to something that doesn't offend your eyes, lets place a bunch of icons on your dock and desktop that you can't get rid of, just bookmarks to common apps. Lets also make a popup show up on your laptop every day to remind you that you need to upgrade to OneDrive but forget to give me the permission to actually upgrade so this message repeats itself and fails every time.. endrant.

tomc1985 5y ago
"There's something wrong with your iCloud ID, please log in to fix it" popup. But hey we disabled iCloud integration so they'll never be able to actually login! (cue evil laughter)
- Arrath 5y ago
  My work-issued iPhone wants me to verify me Apple ID password for whatever reason. By device management policy I am locked out from entering my Apple ID information again. Great success.

greedo 5y ago

Lol, we have to have it on our *nix servers as well. Despite the fact that it's almost completely useless.