Malware risk for 20.04.4 LTS ?

[kalpana]

I have always taken the view that I do not need anti-malware software on my stand alone desktop Ubuntu computer, because I had been advised that the only reason for having AV software was to protect Windows running contacts to whom I might send infiltrated emails.

I was also told that I should have the router firewall switched on, which I do.

I have just come across this comment and it does not restrict its warning to linux servers, so again I wonder if I need anti malware on my computer for my sake rather than windows contacts.


" Linux Malware Is on the Rise Despite Past Declines

VPN provider AtlasVPN has reported that new Linux malware became vastly more prevalent in the first half of 2022. Compared to the first half of 2021, the instances of new malware rose by almost 650% from January to June 2022, from 226,324 to nearly 1.7 million samples, the highest number ever recorded. It was also found by AtlasVPN that April had the highest number of malware samples - 400,931.

AtlasVPN stated in a report that this huge spike in new Linux malware samples followed a decline that was seen between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. A drop of 2% was seen, but this decline did not last long, with AtlasVPN stating in the same report that the "cumulative number of new Linux malware samples in H1 2022 was 31% higher than the number of such samples in the whole year of 2021".
https://www.makeuseof.com/linux-malw...ime-high-2022/