As a local Laurel – Hattiesburg computer service company, we find that one of the most common threats that businesses face today is false antivirus applications. Browsing the web, you may have been interrupted by this message, “Cloud Antivirus has noticed that you are at risk, please enter your credit card number below so you can be protected.”
These fraudulent marketing schemes can be remarkably deceptive. Most fake antivirus applications will typically mock a legitimate product by using seemingly professional graphic designs.
The easiest way to interpret scareware is to ask your IT consultant. If you manage your technology yourself, you should remember if it is software that you chose to install.
These malicious programs not only scam you out of money, but also access your personal contact book, distribute your passwords, and allow other harmful applications access to your network.
In order to block these threats you should ensure that your network is running current antivirus software, perform frequent updates, and install an active firewall.
Benefits of Antivirus:
- Real-time protection from viruses, spyware, and spam
- Boot-time scans
- Scanning of individual files
- Alerts users before viruses cause damage or manipulation
- Protection of your sensitive information
- Protection against email threats and spam
- Financial efficiency
Benefits of Firewalls:
- Protect your network from malicious invasions.
- Monitor and store data. This assists in determining who accesses what type of information and from where this information is being accessed.
- Can complement or supplement content and email filtering solutions.
- Automatically locate and block nearly all email viruses and malware intrusions even before they occur.
- Allow some network users to access certain information but prevent others from doing so, based on your preferences.
- Calculate usage of the internet. This is beneficial in monitoring who spends the most time using the internet and how this affects network performance.
- Can monitor and record outbound traffic and prevent unauthorized access to resources on external networks.
