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Virus Problems?

If you haven’t had one, you’re lucky – very lucky, but everyone has heard of someone who has. There are thousands of viruses and variations out there now and who knows how many more yet to be seen. It is not a subject to be taken lightly, for although many are created and distributed by ‘hackers’ who do it mainly for fun (?), the damage can be enormous. There is also the threat of commercial terrorism to be considered, – a well-designed virus could be very effective at paralysing industry.

Your business use of email and the internet has probably grown hugely over the last year or so, and these are the routes that the virus creators use to spread their wares.

Why should this bother you?

Viruses are sometimes quite harmless, but often they can corrupt your company data beyond use. Some spread by using your email system to send themselves to everyone in your address book. There is a serious risk of infecting and upsetting your customers and colleagues.

Corrupted/ damaged files can take time to discover and correct. Can you afford for your system to be out of use for any length of time while the damage is being corrected (one of our clients recently had two whole days without their system – no email, no accountancy package, no contact management system and no access to shared files! – all courtesy of the ‘Love Bug’)?

Backing up your data

Anti-virus systems are only effective against known viruses. Even though the software companies strive to get updates out as quickly as possible, there is still a chance that you could be hit by a new virus that your software is not yet aware of.

Good data backups are therefore essential to ensure a rapid recovery from a malicious attack (or fire or theft). Data can be backed up to tape, disk or CD but it must be done frequently and regularly preferably using a backup strategy to minimise the risk of data loss.

 

  

Anti-virus software

Get virus protection. Marda recommends (and uses) Sophos Anti-Virus software. It is a very effective remedy from Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection. Regular monthly updates on CD ensure that protection is being offered against the latest viruses – and if a new strain appears in between updates, customers can download the latest files from the Sophos website, to maximise their protection levels.

Technical help can be found, and the website offers insights into the effects of each particular virus or worm. For a detailed explanation of viruses, go to the Sophos website at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/explained/.

Central Email Scanning

Email messages are encrypted during transmission and so viruses attached to them may not be noticed by anti-virus software until they are decrypted by your email client software. Centralised email scanning is a good option for companies that operate their own mail server (eg. Novell GroupWise or Microsoft Exchange).

With this system a specially designed program intercepts each email message as it is processed on the server and passes it to the antivirus software for scanning. If a virus is found then the message is not permitted to go any further. Instead a polite message is sent (optionally) to the sender, intended recipient or both. Since outward-bound messages are also scanned, this minimises the risk of you infecting your customers’ systems as well; we are sure they will appreciate that!

Reserve Server Service

Several of our clients benefit from our Reserve Server Service. Under this scheme Marda maintains an off-site server configured with the same software as the client’s server.

In the event that the client’s server becomes unavailable for whatever reason (ie breakdown, theft etc), then the reserve server is ready to take its place; all that is necessary is to restore the latest data.


The Next Step - telephone Marda today

    Ask about installing Sophos Anti-Virus software - don’t wait until it’s already happened.

    Ask about centralised email scanning for your system to catch viruses before they reach your users and infect your system.

    Ask about hardware, software and strategies for backing up your data.

    Ask about our Reserve Server Service to give you complete peace of mind in the case of server failure.

    Ask about training and consultancy —Protecting Your Data.

We will be happy to help in any way we can!