AV protection on Aware IM only server?

hpl123

Hi all,
What is the recommended approach when it comes to antivirus protection on a server running Aware IM only?
Thanks

tford

No different than antivirus considerations for any other server.

hpl123

Hi Tom,
Ok, the reason i ask is because i am trying to determine the necessity of AV on a server running Aware IM only. The server itself is not exposed to threats or is it? I mean the server runs Aware IM only and all external access is directly accessing Aware IM which strictly limits the entrypoints for potential threats. The only entrypoint would be if an infected e-mail or uploaded file would contain viruses but in that case, the AV doesn´t scan through a database anyways (and i don´t think virus/infected files would be a threat if kept in a database because it would be isolated and couldn´t do any harm on the server). I am not a AV, server specialist but trying to think about this logically.

Support, what is you viewpoint on this?
Thanks

tford

I will defer to others that are more knowledgeable. We protect ours as a precaution.

Powerm

The first think is to avoid Windows...use Linux or OSX based servers.

hpl123

Hi Powerm,
Do you use a Linux server? I have thought about using Linux as my production server but i don´t know anything about Linux and am worried my inexperience might cause security concerns as i don´t know how to configure the OS. Is Linux easy to learn, secure?

Powerm

I use a Mac OSX Server...wanted to have stability and design interface. I don't want to use Linux ( CentOS ), as a Mac user I prefer simple and working systems.

[deleted]

As someone who has always used windows (I'm now 42) I started using Linux mint (2 months ago) as my development platform so I could get use to the world of linux because I know hosting is typically cheaper and more secure.

Now I would have no problems using Centos or any other linux production server.

Other factors which may affect your decision could be whether you are using a shared server, VPS, in house server etc along with a whole range of other factors including your budget .... not to mention amount of users and intensity of the application on server services.

I suggest setting one of each as your testing server/s from the start and give windows and Linux a go and see what fits all of your criteria, understand how it all works so that if something goes wrong you wont have to rely on someone else . . . .especially useful if you have no backup support and a tight budget.

hpl123

Support, what is your recommendation on AV when it comes to servers running Aware IM only?
Thanks

aware_support

Aware IM itself doesn't need anti-virus protection - I can't think of a scenario when virus can become an issue for the server running Aware IM.

However, it's always good idea to protect your server as much as you can - whether you are running Aware IM only or not. There is always an operating system that can be vulnerable to hacker attacks from outside.