2 Dec 2011 ~ PCCare247.com PCCare247.com Blog, PC Care 247 Tech Support Redefined

Friday 2 December 2011

Malware: An ultimate nemesis for SMB’s

Malicious attacks via social networks and through other mediums are considered to be a number one cause for data breaches, surpassing lost or stolen laptops and accidental sharing.


Impacting businesses big time, the costs comprise of detection, remediation, notification efforts, tech support, credit monitoring and legal fees.


Malware SupportIn dire situations, resources are even diverted from other sales, marketing, customer service projects to focus on repair and damage control. With effect, leading the management teams to shift tasks to emergency communication efforts in order to repair customer trust.

But that’s not all, in addition to increased costs; businesses even end up risking the loss of their intellectual property. And if in a situation a cybercriminal were to end up gaining access to a corporate network, the company stands to lose new product development plans, confidential marketing, shareholder information and even its intellectual capital.

SMB’s need to tread with caution
Malware attacks can end up playing havoc with any organization, but for SMBs (Small and Medium-Sized Businesses) the costs are magnified. And in such a situation, the best protection strategy against social networking malware would be to go in for a two-pronged approach: education and technology.

To start with the easiest way to prepare employees against malware would be by means of showing them examples. Say for instance, one could always start by showing screenshots of Facebook scams, Twitter hacks or fake LinkedIn invitations. Yet, at the same time coming up with inclusive quick tips on how to avoid social malware via creation of strong passwords, using only trustworthy news sources and not clicking on questionable links. www.pccare247.com

And yes at the end of the day when employees do up realizing how convincing such attacks might be, giving them a good understanding of how to end up avoiding them.

Source your antivirus judiciously
Only employee education won’t do, for at the end of the day blue-chip business antivirus solutions are considered as an effective solution against social malware. However, as it goes all AV solutions are equal, so the one you should end up choosing should be inclusive of:
  •  A powerful scanning technology. High-quality AV solutions come in good towards analyzing and   detecting potential viruses and malware before they end up infecting user machines.
  •  Active monitoring and protection as a majority of the SMBs don’t have time or resources to constantly monitor their networks for security threats. So, investing in a solution protecting your network and user machines in real time would end up helping big time.
  • Web filtering for malicious elements and blocking bad URLs before they hit the network. This should  be done by implementing a solution using the latest behavioral analysis and malware URL detection technology.

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