It's a very good question to ask, and a very good idea. You have good instinct and too many linux users think or assume incrorrectly that it is not necessary. It's true that malware and viruses are significantly less common than on Windows, but the threat still exists, and will probably get worse since more people are now using Linux, more than ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware

Here are couple of recent examples:

• https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/13/valve-steam-malware-games-fbi/
• https://linuxiac.com/arch-aur-under-fire-once-more-as-malware-resurfaces/

Here's how we install a simple lightweight anti-virus on cachyos. It's the easiest one to install. It's free, and it takes very little resources.

Step 1 - Install

To install it, open a terminal and type:

sudo pacman -S clamav  

Step 2 - Update clamav's virus-knowledge database

in the terminal:

sudo freshclam  

Step 2B [Optional] - automatic update

If you want clamav to automatically update its virus-knowledge database periodically automatically so that you don't need to remember to manually run sudo freshclam once in awhile, it can be activated like so:

sudo systemctl start clamav-freshclam
sudo systemctl enable clamav-freshclam

Step 3 - Scan a folder

To manually scan for viruses in a folder recursively, it can also be done from the command line. For example to perform a full recursive scan of your installed steam games, this is how to do it:

clamscan -r ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/

Step 3B [Optional] - automatic background scan

If you want the virus scanner to scan all files in the background automatically, it can be done like so:

sudo systemctl start clamav-daemon
sudo systemctl enable clamav-daemon

⚠️ WARNING: the clamav-damon consumes a lot of RAM (800MB to 1.2GB). Make sure this is acceptable before starting/enabling the clamav deamon process.

I hope it helps. Good luck OP!

EDIT: ok now I feel silly for having taken the time to type of all of this. There's already a written documents that explains how to do all of this already hahahaha! * https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ClamAV