Posts Tagged ‘Keep viruses out of your network’
Make Security Awareness Training mandatory
These days one of the best defenses against criminal IT hacks is to have users who are “on the lookout” for malicious temptations. For example, anytime a user receives an e-mail message that indicates some kind of urgency.
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Old-school anti-virus is no longer the best protection
Anti-virus sounds like a great feature, right? But anti-virus can be ineffective in fighting newer threats.
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Should executives buy a second computer for banking?
Has anyone every recommended that you buy a second computer for your home to use strictly for online banking and financial transactions?
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A virus possibly contributed to a fatal passenger jet crash
On August 20, 2008, 154 people died when Spanair Flight 5022 crashed right after takeoff in Spain. A preliminary report, discussed in an article in the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais indicates that a diagnostic computer should have detected problems with multiple systems on the aircraft. Had the problems been detected, the takeoff would have never been attempted. The computer was infected with a virus or other malware.
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Is anti-virus obsolete?
The problem with anti-virus programs these days is that so many viruses come out every hour that anti-virus programs can hardly keep their list of virus signatures up to date. If your anti-virus program doesn’t know a virus is “bad” until hours after the virus arrived, you are still infected and it may be too late.
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Are vulnerability scans of your network helpful?
As part of the Foster Institute IT Security Assessments, we always offer to perform vulnerability assessments and they are indeed very helpful. Executives can help IT professionals overcome the negative effect to the results of a vulnerability scan…
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For real–beware attachments in e-mail
Everyone should know better, but executives seem to think they are special. Organized cyber-gangs are sending an e-mail message directly to small and midsized company’s CFO with an attachment that installs a tool to steal banking passwords. Then the criminals transfer money out of the company’s accounts.
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Does it help not to open e-mail from strangers?
An executive recently wrote me, “I got a virus that infected our network because I opened an e-mail message from someone I didn’t recognize – I’ll never do that again!”
While that strategy may help some, it is far from being a reliable way to protect your network. First of all, without performing some technical detective work, it is hard for a non-IT professional to tell who the e-mail came from anyway. You may get an e-mail from a cybercriminal who uses “spoofing” to make the e-mail message appear that it is coming from your best friend, bank, the FTC, or anyone else.
Better protection comes from scanning tools running at one or more locations including your e-mail server, your firewall, your spam filter, and the anti-virus client on your local machine.
Training users “not to open e-mail from strangers” is a moot point if your user is supposed to open e-mail messages from prospects interested in your company’s products and/or services. There is some training that matters though…
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Should you be worried about the virus attack on April 1?
Yes, there is a lot of concern over a “really bad virus” attacking on April 1. Should you be concerned? In fact, many computers are already infected.
The virus goes by the name of Conficker and it is also known as Downadup (and also Downup and Kido). My advice remains the same as always: be concerned about a really bad virus every single day of your life. If you are following IT security best practices, then there is nothing more to do in preparation for April 1.
Still, I was amazed during the Y2K bug nine years ago how many executives decided, “ok, let’s go ahead and take appropriate IT steps since there is a deadline.” If your organization has been postponing some of the simple IT security basics, maybe Conficker’s “bright side” is that you’ll do what needs to be done.
Details of some of the steps to take include:
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Useful utility helps patch your computer
Out of date applications can be slow, have bugs, and even be security risks.
If you have never tried the scans at www.secunia.com you may want to. There is a simple online version of the scan and also more in depth scans you can purchase. One of the most useful parts of the program is that it shows you where to find patches and updates that your system needs to be fully functional.
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