Antivirus

Despite the widespread publicity given to viruses such as LoveBug, Klez and Sasser it is still not uncommon to find companies that have either no antivirus protection at all or outdated and ineffective protection. Unfortunately, this is an area where many people believe that have adequate cover although sadly this is not always the case with signature files often being months or even years out of date. IT Lifeguard offers a housekeeping service that includes ensuring your antivirus is up to date and that you have protection at both server and PC level as well as all other entry points to your company network.

New viruses are written and appear almost every day, although it is true to say that many of these viruses will never be found ‘in the wild’ there is no reason to ignore the threat. As far back as 2000, the LoveBug virus caused havoc worldwide (Details), infecting tens of thousands of computers. Of course, it’s fairly certain that the affected companies all felt they had adequate protection. In 2002 the Klez virus achieved an even higher level of notoriety and was named as the worst virus ever (Details) although it was eclipsed in 2004 by the Netsky virus. Given that many companies do not publicly admit that they have suffered a virus attack the real figures are probably considerably higher in all cases.

2003 saw panic and chaos caused by both the Blaster and Sobig families, in 2004 we saw the Sasser virus family as well as the ‘virus wars’ between the Bagle and Netsky virus families.

The trend is for more complex viruses being uncovered more frequently. Sasser for example does not travel by email but instead exploits a security vulnerability within Windows XP. This is not a problem that is likely to go away, more likely it will become worse and the chances of infection are increasing so you need to ensure that you do everything you can to try and minimise the risks. Although not specifically falling under the anti-virus banner, it is worth ensuring your systems are updated with the latest security patches. Users of Microsoft® Windows® can take advantage of the automated updates available from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com which works with all recent versions of Microsoft® Windows®.

To ensure you have the maximum level of protection you must seal your network with virus checking at all points of access. This means antivirus software on all of the servers, PC’s and laptops as well as PDA’s. If you run your own email server ensure you are scanning at the gateway and filter out viruses at that level before they are delivered to the user.

As important as having the structure in place is to ensure that the software is constantly updated across all installations. This does not need to be a full update each day providing any and all new signature files are applied as they become available. Most corporate antivirus programmes can be configured to update automatically across the web on a pre-determined schedule; this will ensure that you are not caught out through forgetting to perform the update.

Try and stop email viruses from reaching users mailboxes. With your own email server this is covered by running a gateway scanner but if your email is handled by an ISP or 3^rd party you need to ensure that antivirus scanning is being performed by them before the mail is collected by you. Introduce policies covering unsolicited email and ensure staff know how to spot a hoax or false alarm. Sometimes the hoax virus can be as damaging as a real one when users delete files or send copies of the hoax to everybody in their address book simply because they received an email telling them to do so. A good example of this is the JBDGMGR hoax which tells people to remove a particular file. Once the file is removed users may find that their PC’s no longer function as before and they need to look for technical support. Read the analysis of this particular hoax here.

IT Lifeguard can advise on all aspects of data security including antivirus and has formed a close working relationship with Grisoft who produce the AVG software products including a free antivirus for home (Non-commercial) users.