Why do people think "antivirus" is the same thing as "security"?

[aysiu]

A lot of times, people post threads saying "Does Ubuntu require antivirus?" and when they're told Ubuntu does not, inevitably someone else weighs in about how Ubuntu users are naive to think they don't need security.

Am I the only one who doesn't think antivirus is security?

Of course people here care about security. But what does antivirus do to make your Ubuntu installation more secure?

[Grifulkin]

I have associated antivirus with security because I know that if you are vulnerable to viruses then your setup isn't secure. Now having said that, since I've been using Ubuntu I have come to learn that it is much more than that, but even saying that I still think that antivirus is considered "security."

Personally I don't use antivirus on here or on Windows because I know what I click on and I know what I'm doing and I find antivirus more of a pain than a helper. Most people from Windows associate security with Antivirus because that is how the software is advertised.

[sydbat]

A lot of times, people post threads saying "Does Ubuntu require antivirus?" and when they're told Ubuntu does not, inevitably someone else weighs in about how Ubuntu users are naive to think they don't need security.

Am I the only one who doesn't think antivirus is security?

Of course people here care about security. But what does antivirus do to make your Ubuntu installation more secure?No aysiu, you are not alone. However, Grifulkin has a point as to why people think that way...they come from a Windows background and antivirus is marketed as "security".

[ajgreeny]

Yes, it's similar to the way many users think that it is essential to run a firewall so install firestarter or gufw, not realising that the firewall was running all the time, and all they have installed is a way of configuring the firewall, which probably does not need doing if it is a stand-alone desktop and not a server.

[Irihapeti]

Maybe because of messages such as this one, which was printed at the end of one of my bank statements:

"Stop internet banking fraud by updating your computer's antivirus software on a regular basis."

OK, we know that this would only be one way of increasing security (assuming you buy the idea that antivirus is effective), but to someone who's not very computer-savvy, I don't think it gives that impression.