Avoiding Computer Viruses

The New Year has started out with a bang for computer viruses with several major viruses hitting the internet in the first weeks of the year. Computer viruses can cause serious harm to business networks including lost data and productivity. Business should consider the following actions in order to reduce their vulnerability to viruses that may affect their computers:

Anti Virus Software – ensure that current and up-to-date anti-virus software is loaded on all computers including laptops, workstations, servers, etc. Anti-virus software must be constantly updated on a daily basis.

Virus Scans – anti-virus software should be setup to run daily scans of all computers irrelevant if they are connected to the internet or not. Scans on servers and high internet use computers may be set to run multiple times per day.

Internet Downloads – ensure appropriate rights restrictions are in place to limit who may download executable files from the internet. Usually this right should be restricted to network administrators who can properly screen the download for viruses prior to execution.

Internet Browsing – companies will need to give serious consideration to their policies in regards to internet browsing and restrictions. Many viruses are spread though connections to internet sites and these are very difficult to control. More advances viruses may be embedded within images, etc. While the internet is critical to e-commerce and many other business functions serious consideration must be given to overall internet polices.

Email – ensure proper polices are in place in regards to email attachments. Policies should include that no email attachment is to be opened form any unidentified source as this is one of the most common ways to spread a computer virus. The same restriction should apply to all links in emails that are not from known sources.

Employee Education – ensure all employees are properly educated and trained on the risks that computer viruses pose, how they affect the company and how to avoid them. This includes education on both email and internet threats listed above.

These and many other actions may be implemented to limit a company’s vulnerability to computer viruses. Companies need to take this threat serious, as computer viruses can cause server damage to networks and the date they contain.

Comments on this blog