Anti-virus for servers

binarysoul

Is it possible to scan a Linux webhost account for viruses?

I assume the web hosting company runs some kind of antivirus on the physical server, but is there any way to install something on a webhosting account? Maybe something open-source???

Slowhand

Unless you have remote access to the actual server you're being hosted on, or your provider specifically allows it, no. Then again, if you were able to install something to run an AV scan on this server, and your webhost didn't mean to allow it, it might be time to find a new webhost. After all, you're an end-user in this relationship, and you wouldn't want users on your network with high enough priviliges to run some random program on your servers, would you?

The best bet would probably be to contact your provider and find out what kind of scanning they do, how often they do it, and how often they back up their servers, if you're worried about viruses.