Emergency UNIX and Linux Support

From 25+ years experience: The price you pay for software seems to have absolutely no relation at all in relation to the end-user experience (usability + support).

When it comes to anti-virus software, I can't recommend anything, actually, because I'm the kind of user that simply doesn't download viruses. If I download something I don't trust, I'll scan it manually with clamAV because over the long-run, it pays to be a little cautious.

Your situation is a bit special because the Itanium line has such little industry support from the software sector. Anti-virus software is no different. Why should a vendor spend resources for something he will sell very few copies of?

Viruses themselves must be tailored to the specific hardware (excluding "macro" viruses which infect things like Word and Excel documents, or Browser exploits which infect via JavaScript and ActionScript / Flash ). They must use attack vectors built specifically for that hardware -- thus, the version on the OS you use, the version of Office, etc, are all compiled specifically for Itanium. A malware author would have to tailor the malware specifically for these components. By this line of thinking, there is little benefit to leveraging existing x86-based malware signatures -- you need a database of signatures specific for Itaniums.

Thus, in this case, relying on open tools makes more sense than non-open ones: the sparse nature of the installations dictates a cost/benefit model toward openness -- it will be people like you who find and diagnose the infections, and people like you who will help contribute to the database of malware signatures.

@otheus hmmm that makes sense too, I never thought of looking at the HW architecture of the machines in that way. i very much doubt we will have an invasion for this customer, security wise...but thank you again for your detailed explanation. I think it just answered a lot of muddled questions in my head

I hereby declare this issue solved!