Linus Tech Tips – How Antivirus Programs Can’t Catch Malware
Linus Tech Tips, a popular YouTube channel with over 15 million subscribers, was recently hacked. It was an embarrassing incident that showed how easily malware can spread.
The attack didn’t need brute force or breaking two-factor authentication. The hacker just needed to trick someone into opening a PDF file.
How to Install
There was a Youtube video from Linus Tech Tips about how someone working for the channel was hacked by malicious software that was dropped onto their machine by an attacker. Despite all of the cybersecurity technology on the market, the best line of defence is still you. You need to be vigilant about what you download, what websites you visit and file attachments in emails. Antivirus programs can only do so much, they cannot catch brand-new malware that has never been seen before and targeted at you specifically.
To avoid this happening to you, install a secure free/libre GNU Linux PDF reader/document reader in container-style packaging like Snap or Flatpak, and execute all downloaded files in a sandbox or virtual machine.