> They make the owner feel a sense of comfort while offering a bare minimum of value in terms of real security. If only they provided a bare minimum value, bec

> They make the owner feel a sense of comfort while offering a bare minimum of value in terms of real security. If only they provided a bare minimum value, because it's worse than that. Anti-viruses make the system horribly insecure, with their poorly written C/C++ programs running everything needlessly as root and parsing every data within its reach [1]. If that's not enough, they even tamper with browsers and interfere with genuine efforts to improve security [2]. Anti-viruses are scams that decrease security, with the possible exception of ClamAV. The whole concept is bad too. Installing some magic software can never make security threats go away. [1]: https://ia801306.us.archive.org/26/items/SyScanArchiveInfocon/SyScan%202014%20Singapore/SyScan%202014%20presentations/SyScan2014_JoxeanKoret_BreakingAntivirusSoftware.pdf https://ia801306.us.archive.org/26/items/SyScanArchiveInfoco... [2]: https://robert.ocallahan.org/2017/01/disable-your-antivirus-software-except.html https://robert.ocallahan.org/2017/01/disable-your-antivirus-...