Viruses, Worms and Spam

With progress comes complexity. Technology that is supposed to make us more productive often seems to cause more trouble than it’s worth. Viruses, trojans, worms, hoaxes and spam cause annoyance, fear and create news headlines*. The media and virus protection companies claim they cost us millions in lost productivity, data and resources. But do they really matter? Surely spam is just an inconvenience easily deleted and viruses seem to get sorted out quickly don’t they? To a certain extent this is true – until you get hit.

Imagine that no-one has updated your virus software for a few weeks. When they do you find that all your accounts spreadsheets are infected with a virus that changes numbers at random. Of course you’ve got back-up files (haven’t you?) but how long is it going to take to load those files and which are correct?

What if a new email virus is bombarding your email gateway with so many emails that you decide to shut it down? And miss out on a customer order? Or you inadvertently send out a report carrying a virus to a customer – what sort of message does that send?

It needn’t be like that. Far from trying to spread panic, Wavex believes there are a few simple things you can do to protect your company. But first, where are the risks to your office?

Where are the virus risks?

• Internet – downloaded programs or documents may be infected
  
• Programs – can carry a virus that can infect your machine as soon as you run them
  
• Email – can include infected attachments or malicious scripts that run as soon as you preview or read the body text
  
• Documents/spreadsheets – can contain macro viruses that can infect other documents or spreadsheets
  
• Floppy discs and CDs – can have infected items