2008 Woodie Awards
Security on a slim budget
NIATEC Awareness Colum
By Lorne Cammack
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
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Ever miss an important date? They often sneak up on us: Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, project deadlines, and others. One important date that we often overlook is the day our virus protection expires, which leads to outdated virus definition files.
Most computers bought from a retail vendor include free anti-virus software as well as other security related products. Unfortunately, most preloaded protection doesn't last forever. Defending our systems against viruses and other malware (software which negatively impacts a system or its data) is critical. The following three tools can augment our defenses:
Anti-Virus Software: Defends a system from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc. These programs infect a computer, subsequently leading it to infect other computers. If anti-virus software is not kept up-to-date the software will be unable to detect the most recent variations of viruses.
Anti-Spyware Software: Is designed to block spyware from getting on a computer. Spyware is a type of malware which may do a variety of things to a system, anything from tracking what websites are visited to installing unwanted software. Authors of spyware programs continuously tweak them-this makes having updated definition files critical.
Firewalls: A properly configured firewall reduces the number of ways (open ports) that an outside attacker can exploit and/or use to overtake a system. However, if a firewall is not up-to-date it may not be aware of newer threats; even the firmware itself may be vulnerable.
Clearly anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewalls are necessary; however, if they are not up-to-date they will not provide protection. Sadly, the reality is that most users allow these tools to become outdated. This is easy to avoid-all major vendors that charge for updates allow a subscriber to input credit card information and bill automatically by default to renew the subscription.
For many of us, this is not an ideal solution. In many cases these tools came with the machine; why should we pay more now? Why spend more money when the computer was so expensive to begin with? The good news is that because of the competitive IT environment we enjoy it is easy to obtain many of these tools-with updates included-at little or no cost. Two basic approaches make this possible:
Most computers bought from a retail vendor include free anti-virus software as well as other security related products. Unfortunately, most preloaded protection doesn't last forever. Defending our systems against viruses and other malware (software which negatively impacts a system or its data) is critical. The following three tools can augment our defenses:
Anti-Virus Software: Defends a system from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc. These programs infect a computer, subsequently leading it to infect other computers. If anti-virus software is not kept up-to-date the software will be unable to detect the most recent variations of viruses.
Anti-Spyware Software: Is designed to block spyware from getting on a computer. Spyware is a type of malware which may do a variety of things to a system, anything from tracking what websites are visited to installing unwanted software. Authors of spyware programs continuously tweak them-this makes having updated definition files critical.
Firewalls: A properly configured firewall reduces the number of ways (open ports) that an outside attacker can exploit and/or use to overtake a system. However, if a firewall is not up-to-date it may not be aware of newer threats; even the firmware itself may be vulnerable.
Clearly anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewalls are necessary; however, if they are not up-to-date they will not provide protection. Sadly, the reality is that most users allow these tools to become outdated. This is easy to avoid-all major vendors that charge for updates allow a subscriber to input credit card information and bill automatically by default to renew the subscription.
For many of us, this is not an ideal solution. In many cases these tools came with the machine; why should we pay more now? Why spend more money when the computer was so expensive to begin with? The good news is that because of the competitive IT environment we enjoy it is easy to obtain many of these tools-with updates included-at little or no cost. Two basic approaches make this possible:
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