Virus Protection

Do you have the virus protection you need to protect your organization from the viruses around you?  How exposed are you to the viruses that attack your system on a daily basis that slow down or lock up your computers and networks?  Do you have the time to research whether the latest virus is the "real thing" or just a hoax?  Is there anyone on your staff capable of running a virus detection analysis?

These are just a few of the questions you need to ask, besides the loss of productivity and the loss of revenue you must consider.  Rest assured that the technology team of experts at MCS know and anticipate the newest virus and the cure before you’ve had your morning coffee.

Can you afford not to let Maximum Computer Systems, Inc. protect your organization by doing what they do best?

What Is a Computer Virus?
A computer virus is a program – a piece of executable code – that has the unique ability to replicate. Like biological viruses, computer viruses can spread quickly and are often difficult to eradicate. They can attach themselves to just about any type of file and are spread as files that are copied and sent from individual to individual.

Besides replication, some computer viruses have something else in common: a damage routine that can deliver the virus payload. While payloads may only display messages or images, they can also destroy files, reformat your hard drive, or cause other kinds of damage. If the virus doesn’t contain a damage routine, it can still cause trouble by taking up storage space and memory, and downgrading the overall performance of your computer.

Several years ago most viruses spread primarily via floppy disk, but the Internet has introduced new virus distribution mechanisms. With email now used as an important business communication tool, viruses are spreading faster than ever. Viruses attached to email messages can infect an entire enterprise in a matter of minutes, costing companies millions of dollars annually in productivity loss and clean-up expenses.

Viruses won’t go away any time soon. More than 61,000 have been identified, and 200 new ones are created every month, according to the International Computer Security Association. With numbers like those, it’s safe to say that most organizations will deal regularly with virus outbreaks. No one who uses computers is immune from viruses.

It is estimated that more than 80% of viruses infect corporate networks via email.  And considering that one in 300 emails contains a virus, securing the messaging environment is the first step to keeping the entire enterprise free from harm.

The expanded viral threat
The number of email-borne viruses (e.g., macro viruses) continues to rise each year. According to the Computer Security Institute's annual "Computer Crime and Security Survey," 94% of the respondents say they detected computer viruses in 2001 (compared to 85% in 2000).

Compounding the virus threat is the potential for malicious code to spread quickly and infect an organization's network before detection. This malicious code can seep into a network in a number of ways:

• It can accompany mobile code on Web pages, Web-based mail, and HTTP and FTP file downloads.


• Attachments to Web-based email programs;


• Mobile code such as Java, Java-Script, and ActiveX used to execute simple graphics or animation programs on Web pages;


• Documents or software downloaded via FTP or HTTP.

These Web-based attacks are both sneaky and worrisome because an Internet user in an enterprise may download a program or visit a Web page that seems harmless, but unbeknownst to them it could contain malicious code, such as a Trojan Horse program, which would expose the entire network to hackers. Should an employee visit or download virus-laden content via the Web, virus protection at the FTP or HTTP gateway will provide a strong layer of protection for your network.