Virus1

Computer Security Threatens Small Businesses

Joe Houghton - March 2004

Could your business afford €5,000 to clean up after a virus outbreak in your computer system? That’s the average cost to small businesses to clean up if they are hit.

A winter 2003 survey by one of the world’s largest computer security firms, Network Associates, shows that many small businesses are unaware of the dangers to their systems and even continued business operations posed by computer viruses, unwanted “spam” email and malicious hackers – people who try to enter or take over computers via the Internet.

In a study of 500 European businesses of fewer than 20 staff, worrying findings included :

Over 20% of firms had been forced to close offices to cope with being hit by computer viruses
Many firms are unaware of even basic precautions to take to ensure the security of the information held on their computers
If anti-virus software is installed, it is likely to be out of date (and therefore of limited protection)
In 2003, over 40% of UK small businesses were hit by a virus
25% of companies admitted to infecting partners and customers with a virus they passed on

Scary stuff! But avoidable with relatively little effort and expense, if you put some basic safeguards in place. Key actions to implement include :

Ensure that every computer is running anti-virus software.
This software should be updated regularly – at least weekly, to ensure that it can recognise and deal with all the latest viruses. Most modern anti-virus programs have the facility to update themselves when connected to the Internet – automatically in some cases.
Use a major supplier – they have the resources to keep on top of the constant flow of new viruses being unleashed on the Internet

Email is a source of many viruses, but following some simple rules can reduce your likelihood of problems:

Don’t open any attachments from anyone you don’t know or are unsure of.
If in doubt, just delete the email. Highlight it by clicking once on the subject line, then deleting it. You don’t need to open an email to delete it.
Never reply back to emails asking you to unsubscribe to their mailings – this confirms that your email address is a “live” one, which will only mean that the sender pushes even more rubbish your way!

Set your outgoing mail format to either plain text or RTF – many companies now automatically reject HTML format emails as likely to be unwanted “spam”.

Remember - LearningTalk offers a comprehensive IT Audit service to help businesses avoid problems such as those described above. It's cheaper to prevent this kind of problem happening rather than have to try and clean up after you've been hit, so why not give us a call now to book your IT Audit? Click here for more details.

Call on Lo-Call 1890 20 00 45, or email joe.houghton@learningtalk.ie