{"id":12231,"date":"2013-03-29T09:46:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T16:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?p=12231"},"modified":"2013-04-03T12:51:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T19:51:24","slug":"why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Why &#8220;Anti-Virus&#8221; is a Terribly Outdated Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12747\" title=\"old-mac-blog-header\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-blog-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-blog-header.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-blog-header-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-blog-header-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Alright kids, it\u2019s time for Auntie Lysa to go on a rant about Ye Olden Days. Are you ready?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been listening to\/reading a lot of things talking about \u201cviruses\u201d as the object of computer security. I know this is really nothing new, but as the computer security landscape changes, this sort of attitude seems more impossibly outdated and harmful. It\u2019s a bit like viewing phones as those giant, ancient devices that hung on the wall, whose dial you used to have to spin with your finger and whose only purpose was speaking to someone very far away. Now phones are slabs of glass that are such powerful computers, you could use them to send a space shuttle to the moon. Oh, and you can also use them to speak to someone far away.<\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time, the main worry about computer security was indeed getting infected with viruses. Viruses could move far and fast, and they could wreck your entire day. Maybe even several days. Virus outbreaks sucked. Viruses were often destructive, and would overwrite your data so that you couldn\u2019t recover it. Yuck. But there hasn\u2019t really been a virus outbreak on any operating system in a really long time. Years and years.<\/p>\n<p>But we aren\u2019t really safer or less vulnerable to computer security issues than we were years and years ago. Viruses have fallen out of favor, but Trojans are now much more prevalent. And, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/what-is-flashback\/\">Flashback<\/a>, they can sometimes hit a whole lot of people. There are huge numbers of new Trojan variants discovered every day, mostly for Windows and Android. They\u2019re not destructive in the \u201cOh no, it\u2019s killed my data!\u201d sense, but in the \u201cOh no, they burgled my data!\u201d sort of way. Which still sucks, if you ask me.<\/p>\n<p>Even that is only part of the problem these days. Malware is still an issue, but attackers aren\u2019t stopping at making you run their code so they can get your data. Sometimes it\u2019s simply easier to steal your data by breaking and entering, or stealing your credentials from some third party.<\/p>\n<p>The upshot of my rant is this: We all know what \u201canti-virus\u201d software is, but this is not the whole of the security needed to protect you, digitally speaking. Malware is not the only way to ruin your computing day. We need to protect our data and our computers, not just fight malicious code.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">old Mac photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/truthlying\/179905\/\">JulkaG<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/photopin.com\">photopin<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\">cc<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alright kids, it\u2019s time for Auntie Lysa to go on a rant about Ye Olden Days. Are you ready? I\u2019ve been listening to\/reading a lot of things talking about \u201cviruses\u201d as the object of computer security. I know this is really nothing new, but as the computer security landscape changes, this sort of attitude seems [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[22,331],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alright kids, it\u2019s time for Auntie Lysa to go on a rant about Ye Olden Days. Are you ready? I\u2019ve been listening to\/reading a lot of things talking about\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why &quot;Anti-Virus&quot; is a Terribly Outdated Idea - The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alright kids, it\u2019s time for Auntie Lysa to go on a rant about Ye Olden Days. Are you ready? I\u2019ve been listening to\/reading a lot of things talking about\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-29T16:46:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-03T19:51:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"260\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lysa Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Intego\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png\",\"width\":875,\"height\":875,\"caption\":\"Intego\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Mac Security Blog\",\"description\":\"Keep Macs safe from the dangers of the Internet\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-thumb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/old-mac-thumb.jpg\",\"width\":\"400\",\"height\":\"260\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/\",\"name\":\"Why \\\"Anti-Virus\\\" is a Terribly Outdated Idea - The Mac Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/why-anti-virus-is-a-terribly-outdated-idea\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-29T16:46:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-03T19:51:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Alright kids, it\\u2019s time for Auntie Lysa to go on a rant about Ye Olden Days. 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