An oversimplification of the sport of Golf would be to say that the aim of golf is to play as little golf as possible while attaining the goal, fewer hits are preferable and the ultimate would be a hole in one. In this sense computer anti-virus software is similar, you want to stay protected from malicious software but also want to deal with as few threats as possible. While many people enjoy the sport of golf, hardly anybody outside of the general IT professional category will actually LIKE anti virus software. For most people it’s just viewed as an expense, and if you are sensible and careful online, it shouldn’t have to do much protecting, but you still should have it.
Endpoint protection
As the name suggests, this is the end of the line for your security, your device! The AV on your device will (hopefully) pounce on any suspicious activity, prevent programs making dangerous changes, and periodically scan for malware and remove it. While this is certainly important, you want to avoid testing its efficacy because no AV software is perfect.
You might be thinking, “But I don’t use AV and I have never really had any viruses, and I don’t get warnings or anything”, – remember a virus only makes itself known if it wants to, just because you don’t know it is there doesn’t mean it isn’t.
What comes before
To borrow the golf analogy, you want your AV to take as few swings as possible, there should be many layers of protection before it gets to that point. Network security, access controls, data backup, mail filtering, logging and monitoring. To glue all these together you should also strive to have robust procedures and policies to deal with all eventualities, and review them each time to shore up and improve them as the threats and your business develop.
If you want to know more, call us on 01522 797520 and one of us will talk you through what you need to consider.
Ben Parker – byline and other articles
