Almost everyone has had first or secondhand experience with malware or spyware of some sort.  There are many threats posed to your business by Viruses, spyware, adware, Malware and so forth. It's common knowledge that these threats can be extremely harmful. Now, new threats called “advanced Malware” can cause irreversible damage on your machine.

What is so unique about advanced malware? Well, Robert Clyde, the president of ISACA defines it as a targeted, stealthy, evasive and adaptive Malware. As per the description, the Advanced Malware is sly, tricky to identify and also difficult to avert.

Other malwares are notorious for attacking random targets and slowing infected systems down. However, they don’t cause as much harm as advanced malware which is direct and precise. Advanced malware is developed to perform a particular function such as to find, attack, and corrupt specific data. Advanced malware is designed in a specific manner to ensure that it executes its functions accurately. This can cause persistent threats. If the threats are not rectified, then they can stay within the system for a very long time to accomplish their primary objective.

We always advocate a multi-tiered approach to preventing spyware and malware.  While no solution can inoculate you completely from spyware, using best practices can help reduce your risk footprint significantly.  Here are some of our recommended measures.

Make sure to have a UTM firewall between your network and the Internet.  We like to use the Dell Sonicwall series for this.  These units inspect both incoming and outgoing traffic for signatures left by malware and block it on the edge of the network.

 Make sure your computers are fully patched.  Many malware programs exploit know security flaws in major operating systems and applications.  If you don’t patch these vulnerabilities in a timely manner, the malware author can use these vulnerabilities as an attack vector to infect your machine.  Having someone handle patching, like we do with our Managed network service, is a good bet.  If you decide to do it manually, make sure you look for patches and patch at least twice a month. 

Antivirus software sometimes has a hard time with Malware, but it is still a critical piece in the fight against spyware and malware.  Most AV providers have bundled some form of malware scanning and remediation in their products.  There are many malware-only scanners as well, some of which coexist nicely with traditional AV. 

Email is a vector often overlooked when one thinks about Malware, but it is one of the largest attack vectors.  “Phishing” messages, in which an attacker tries to trick the recipient into clicking an attachment or link containing malware, are very common.  In fact, most of the Cryptolocker infections we see are initiated by the user clicking on an infected email.  Having good AV on the provider / server side is essential, as is being very careful when opening attachments, especially if you are not expecting an attachment from the firm or individual, or the text of the email is odd. 

 By following these steps, you will get a head start on preventing spyware.  Please give us a shout to get help with a strategy and implementation process for reducing your malware risk. To know more Get in touch with us: www.gravityusa.com