Have you heard a friend, colleague, or customer say “My Computer’s Slow” recently? Chances are, that machine has picked up some kind of malicious software, or Malware for short. Malware can do anything from collecting user names and passwords, to monitoring your keystrokes, to using your computer as a launchpad for attacks against other organizations. Many malware authors have connections with Organized Crime, or even foreign intelligence services.
Removing malware from a computer is a time intensive process, and in some cases, may require a complete forensic analysis to determine if protected information was accessed by third parties. To be 100% certain a computer has been fully decontaminated, it is usually necessary to completely reload a system.
At Central Florida Technology Solutions, the best IT services company in Central Florida, we see this every day with incoming, new customers, and rarely with our existing managed customers.
Where Malware is concerned an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are 4 Simple steps that everyone can take that provide multiple layers of protection against Malware infection. This is our “secret sauce”.
- Use a Content Filtering Proxy – some firewalls have the ability to filter out viruses and other Malware at the perimeter of your network. Just like all anti-virus software, Content Filtering Proxies use signatures to detect Malware, so if they don’t know about it, they can’t detect it.
- Don’t use an Administrator-level account for day to day tasks – Most of the time, installing software requires Administrator level privileges. By running as an “un-privileged” user, you can prevent many Malware infections.
- Update your software – Most Malware uses flaws in your software to install itself. Remember to always keep your operating system, web browser, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Shockwave, and other software up to the latest patch levels.
- Run client-side anti-virus software – Running a current and up to date AV package on each workstation reduces the risk of Malware installing itself and remaining undetected.
Can implementing these steps be costly and time consuming? Yes, they can. Compare those costs against the costs of cleaning or reloading workstations on a semi-regular basis. Remember to factor in lost productivity for the employees using those machines on top of the direct cleanup costs.