Alan Solomon, creator of Dr Soloman’s Antivirus, has admitted to using Linux to avoid viruses rather than try to combat them on Windows.
His comments come after Symantec’s Brian Dye estimated that antivirus systems do not even catch half of cyber attacks.
Writing of his decision on his blog, Solomon said: "There doesn’t seem to be much malware for Linux. I don’t know why. Some say it’s because Linux’s security is better, some say it’s because fewer people use it. I’m not really bothered."
After contracting a virus from the Register’s website "over a decade ago", Solomon decided to format his hard-drive and install Linux, and claims not to have had any trouble since then.
"I think that Brian Dye, a Symantec senior VP, is suggesting that their product isn’t really up to the job that you were hoping it would do, and maybe you need to switch to something else," Solomon added.
Symantec is expected to shift focus to a "detect and respond" model of digital security instead of a protection method, following further remarks made by Dye.
The analysis of both security experts tallies with remarks made by Blue Coat’s Hugh Thompson, speaking to CBR earlier this month.
Thompson advised companies to stop addressing every breach, but instead to create a security net to allow quick recoveries.
"If you plan for that kind of failure I think that’s potentially a game changing scenario," he said.
