Do You Need an Antivirus?

Some people don’t use condoms in real life, either.

A recent article by Old Goat Guide rung a bell for me. In “Antivirus Or Not?”, the blogger wrote:

I swear, anytime an article discusses antivirus software, there is inevitably at least one comment from someone who has “never used an antivirus and never been infected”.

Indeed, and he and I aren’t the only ones. The How-To Geek also wrote in “HTG Explains: Why You Need An Antivirus on Windows, No Matter How Careful You Are“:

Whenever antivirus software is mentioned, someone always seems to chime up and say they don’t need an antivirus because they’re careful. This isn’t true. No matter how smart think you are, you can still benefit from an antivirus on Windows.

What the chest-thumpers who claim they do not need an antivirus seem to not realize is that even legitimate websites get hacked and can serve up malware. In December 2014, there were over 100,000 WordPress sites compromised and served up a malicious script to their visitors. In January, Huff Post and other popular sites were infected with malware. In Q2 of 2010, over 1.3 million websites were infected with malware. As TechRepublic puts it, “Guess what? Your favorite websites are more likely to serve malware than p0rn sites“.

There are people who refuse to practice safe sex, and there will continue to be people who refuse to practice safe computing. That’s sad, but it’s the truth. Unfortunately, both scenarios keep those infections alive and spreading.

Don’t be the Typhoid Mary of the web.