All these are types of "malware" that can infect your systems to cause all sorts of mischief. We all hate the fact that these nuisances exist. However, tools are available to let just about anyone protect their systems reasonably well for a reasonable cost, and today, it is essential to protect yourself to reduce your vulnerability.
We'll cover a little about each of these below, but remember this is just a brief overview, not a comprehensive study of what each threat is about and how to stop it. If you're concerned about these types of threats and aren't sure you're protected, please let us know and we can help.
We all know viruses are little programs that can infect systems and can cause various sorts of damage. The effects of viruses can range from the merely inconvenient to the severe - in worst cases, your personal or company data can be compromised or destroyed, and your systems can be rendered unusable.
The number of viruses out there is still increasing exponentially, but they are not usually as much of a risk as they were just a couple of years ago, due to the improvements in anti-virus software and the fact that most people are now running such software. However, diligence is still required on everyone's part
Every computer user today really MUST do the following:
Spam is that annoying advertising that you get advertising all sorts of "personal care" products, cheap (likely bootlegged or fake) software, pharmaceuticals and the like. Other examples of spam include the infamous "Nigerian scam" e-mails which have proliferated. Remember, if it seems too good to be true....
Those ones are annoying, but the ones pushing pornographic content are offensive to many, and could conceivably cost your company money in claims for negligence if you don't take reasonable steps to protect your employees from it.
As well, spam can cost you huge amounts of money when your staff spends 10-15 minutes EACH, every morning just removing the spam.
While there is no silver bullet that stops all the spam and lets all legitimate e-mail through, you can protect your company from spam reasonably well by starting with the following tips (which you should pass on to your staff as well):
Spyware and Adware are a comparatively new challenge to most companies, but they're getting worse by the month. In 2004, spyware was a comparatively minor risk factor for most companies. Now, it's become even more of a problem than viruses.
At its simplest, spyware is a program that you inadvertently download and install from websites which are designed to a) collect and relay information about your web surfing or other more personal data (e.g., credit cards) to a third party, or b) to feed unwanted advertising to you as you surf the web.
This is more dangerous than it sounds, because you could compromise your personal or your company's data quite easily, and at the least, it will slow down your staff from doing their jobs - and could even make their PC unusable.
The most common types of sites that push spyware onto your systems are file-sharing & music sites (Kazaa and its ilk), shopping sites, and of course, pornographic sites, but other common sources include many children's content sites as well - sadly, children are targeted because they just don't know any better.
Spyware can be quite costly, time-consuming and complicated to remove, in part because the people who produce it are getting sneakier by the week, and in part because there's so much of it.
In the most severe cases, it may be necessary to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows - and this means there's a real potential for data loss.
Removing spyware could involve software like Spybot, Ad-Aware, SpywareBlaster, HiJackThis, etc., as well as a lot of very detailed manual editing of your systems' registry and other files. It's expensive. It's time-consuming. And it can put your data at very serious risk.
Here's a very brief list of what you can do:
Phishing is a very new take on an old concept: If you pretend that you're authorized and ask people for personal information, they'll provide it.
The most common form of phishing is when you receive a fake e-mail that APPEARS to be from someone legit (like e-bay, Paypal or your bank) and asks you to click a link there, go to their site and confirm your credentials - usually a credit card number or bank account information. The phishers then use that data to rack up charges on your card or take money from your bank, or for identity theft.
Here are a couple of things you can do to protect yourself from phishing attacks:
So there you have it. A few of the more obvious threats described, and a few strategies to begin combating them. Obviously there are all sorts of other threats out there too - we can't hope to cover them all here. However, a lot of diligence and common sense can go a long way towards taking back control.
If you would like to learn how you can cost-effectively control your company's risk from these types of threats, please contact us today, and we'll work with you to review your existing security procedures and identify areas that you could or should improve. When your business is at stake, security's something we all need to take seriously.