File backups and viruses

I noticed that files are kept in their original format after they are transferred. Does this pose any problems if a virus is backed up to the server?

I guess if the server is a Linux host it would be less of a concern, but a Windows server seems to be more vulnerable in this case.

I’d guess yes. Most virus scanners on Windows will scan all files as they are being used, so I would think the UrBackup client copying files for backup would cause the scanner to check the file, and forbid its use if it finds a virus. Microsoft Security Essentials (now called Windows Defender) certainly will do this, as will almost all others.

If you don’t trust your AV software to find viruses, I’d suggest looking for different AV software. Just to be safe, try storing the file backups out of reach of your Windows computers. Either don’t make the backups accessible as network shares, or forbid access to the shares by your computers. This will also help prevent a later infection ruining your existing clean backups. If you want an AV scanner on Linux, I think ClamAV is the most popular option, but I can’t speak to its quality. run “crontab -e” and add something like “0 23 * * * clamscan --log=/home/syko24/possible_viruses.log -ir /mnt/urbackup” or wherever you store your backups.

EDIT: to explain: crontab is like the Windows Task Scheduler. 0 23 means 11pm, * * * means every day of every week of every month, and clamscan -ir will scan recursively (through all subfolders) and only tell you about possible infections. It’ll then log that to your home folder, so you can check and either agree with clamscan and delete the virus yourself, or disagree with clamscan and be happy you didn’t add “–remove=yes” to your scheduled clamscan.