Question
Ubuntu 20.04 Server - Should I Install Anti-Virus Software?
- Posted on April 3, 2022
- DigitalOcean DropletsUbuntu 20.04Firewall
Asked by mpasquali
I’m running Ubuntu 20.04 Server on my droplet along with Nginx. Should I install anti-virus software like ClamAV as in the following link? Is it essential or recommended? I’m also utilizing a fw and Cloudflare DNS proxy with their fw and scanning enabled.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-and-use-clamav-on-ubuntu-server-20-04/
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Hello there,
It is essential to secure your droplet, however running malware software is not definitely a must, but it is still a good thing to do.
I’ll highly recommend checking our tutorial An Introduction to Securing your Linux VPS
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-securing-your-linux-vps
Usually, clamd/clamv is designed for e-mail scanning on mail gateways and if you’re planning to send/receive emails using the droplet you can install it by following our article.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-setup-exim-spamassassin-clamd-and-dovecot-on-an-arch-linux-vps
I can recommend using software like Linux Malware Detect which is a malware scanner for Linux.
Hope that this helps!
Hi @mpasquali,
It’s not essential but it’s a good idea. Having said that, what it’s essential is to secure the Droplet itself doing some good practises. As you already have a few suggestions I won’t go over them in detail but give you a list of what I believe it’s best:
Most vulnerabilities leading to the hacking of a Server are from outdated software. It can be your PHP version, NodeJS version, Nginx version, a vulnerability from your Application, and so on. As such, I’ll recommend always keeping everything up to date. This is the best sort of defense.
Hello,
I personally would follow other best practices as @alexdo already mentioned. I could also suggest a few more resources:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-harden-openssh-on-ubuntu-18-04
ufwor a Cloud Firewall:https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/firewalls/
Hope that this helps!
Best,
Bobby