If this is really Linux, and you treat the file like text and not an executable, and if this is not homework, you should not need to scan the file with any antivirus software, since none of the ASCII in the inbound files should get executed.
If you are doing this for a class, and if you are doing this on Windows and if you professor requires you to scan the file with antivirus, then you should definitely use Powershell. You can use winzip, or some other compression tool for your encryption. but Powershell is likely to be the easiest tool to interact with McAfee Antivirus.
And follow the homework rules!!!!