Guide to Protection from Viruses and other forms of Malware

Protection from Viruses and other forms of Malware

The turbulent relationship of your computer in relation to viruses and malware

As time goes by, Data become more and more valuable to a business owner. We keep a database of inventory to make sure we are stockpiled with the right products it also helps us figure out what we sell more of and what we should take out of our products list altogether. We also keep databases of our regular clients. What they normally buy and how much of it they buy is a good indication of future sales for forecasting. So, you see knowledge is power. When you lose knowledge you lose a lot of your power as well.

That is exactly what will happen to you if you don’t guard against viruses. It is difficult to track down the amount of money lost because of the loss of data, but the amount of productive hours alone could cripple a small business. That is why it is important to protect the data you have before anything happens to it.

There are several forms of malware out there, viruses, trojans, worms and spyware. All designed to give a small cramp to your business. Here is a short guide on how to deal with these malware. Follow these simple steps and you can follow to limit your exposure to this malicious software.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Scan it with Anti-Virus software.

It is important that you put everything through your anti-virus software first before you access any new data. Viruses travel through data and that is why checking your data is important to keep your computer safe. Buy high quality Anti-virus software from a reputable source and install on your computer. Make sure that you regularly update the software's virus database in your Anti-virus program.

I recommend: You can buy Anti-virus software of the net from companies like Trend Micro and McAfee which ample business suites packages. If you are short on budget you can use free anti virus software that should be sufficient, at least temporarily. You can check out anti virus software from Antivir, AVG or Avast.

Back up your files.

The files that you have may be the life blood of your company or something totally optional, but either way it is your property. Since, you own this; it might be wise to safeguard your property. One way to safeguard your data is by making copies of it. This way, if you lose your data, you have a ready back up available. You can save your back-ups in removable media like an external hard disk, a recordable CD, a zip disk or even floppy disks if you still use those. Another way to store your back-up data is by saving it in online storage. There are several sites that offer storage up to 5 GB of storage for free. Anything over that, you would have to pay extra.

I recommend: For online storage, try sites like www.Adrive.com. Sites like this offer the convenience of storage without the hassle of physical storage. You can save up to 5 gigabytes of data for free and if you need more you can always pay a little extra from more space.

Fortify your passwords.

Another way people lose data is through hacking, which in most cases is assisted by other forms of malware like worms and trojans. One way to, at least, slow down possible hackers is by creating stronger passwords. It is not wise to put in your birthday or any other personal information as your password. Instead, make sure the passwords are alpha numeric. Changing the cases in the password also helps because most passwords are case sensitive.

I recommend: Passwords that really work well are passwords that people do not expect. You can use two different words combined with numbers to create a really strong password.

Be careful who you accept data from.

It is okay to be a little paranoid. Don't trust data and programs from sources that you don't personally know. The fastest growing source of malware is email. Remember to scan all attachments that you receive through email. This includes both the ones from people you know and don't know. Also, do not open spam mail. Sometimes, opening the email is enough for the virus to latch on to your systems. If you have your own domain as your email, it would be good to subscribe to email hosting services. This practically eliminates the threat of viruses in your computer. If you are going to use programs from public domain, make sure to scan them. These programs might have a virus in them.

I recommend: Public domain is a good source of useful software but there are obvious risks involved. If you would like to know more about public domain and how you can use it to your benefit you can go to www.ezau.com for more information.  You can also use email hosting plans that companies like Gossimer.Biz offers. It has Spam, Virus and mail bomb protection at the server which detects nearly 100% of viruses and other malicious programs to help avoid viruses (I am CEO of Gossimer).

Keep everything current.

Keeping your systems updated goes a long way towards keeping your computer safe, this includes the virus database of your Anti-virus program. There is a growing number of viruses out there and for the most part, companies that develop anti-virus software keep in pace with viruses but you need to continually update your software just to be safe. Updating your operating system also helps your computer identify problems early. It should keep viruses at bay.

I recommend: Regularly checking your operating system for updates is a good thing. It helps keep your computer ready against possible operating system attacks. It also makes available bugs fixes so that you can deal with attacks to your system better. If you are running on a windows based operating system visit the site www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

Set up infrastructure.

Your infrastructure can vastly improve your chances against viruses and malware. If your system is well designed to keep bad data out, it should save you time and money that you would normally spend working on fixing the after-effects of malware. The technology available, virtualization, mainframe protection, and network & connectivity tools has improved and with it your chances against viruses.

I recommend: You can find additional information about how infrastructure can help you by going to www.vmware.com and www.cisco.com. Digital SSL certificates can also help keep your computer safe.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Run regular tests on your system. Testing your computers twice a week should be enough to see if there are any major infestations before any major damage is done.
• Back up your files regularly. You can back up your files at the end of every week. This is a tedious process so it would be best to optimize the use of this activity. Be sure to scan the files that you back to ensure that your reserve files won't be infected with any viruses.
• Before buying your anti virus software, consider the price and efficacy. You can check on the effectivity by checking on benchmark sites and consumer watch groups. Do a little research on what works best at the best price possible.