Are You Letting Viruses Walk Through Your Door?

ByDaniel Gottilla

Are You Letting Viruses Walk Through Your Door?

Computer viruses are all over the media these days. Just reading the news, you get a glimpse of how often it happens, and the companies dealing with the repercussions are big names. There are viruses that destroy, viruses that steal, and viruses that just wreak havoc. Sure, you have anti-virus software and you update it regularly, but if you think that is keeping you safe, you’re wrong. Anti-virus software is like closing your front door but not locking it. Most people will knock and leave, but a few will try the knob and get inside.

Your employees probably get a lot of email. To keep your business running, they may open hundreds of messages. Your firewall catches most of them, your virus scanner even more, but what about the ones too new for your anti-virus to recognize? One way your company can lock the doors to viruses is to never open attachments if you or your employees aren’t expecting the attachment to come through. Even if the sender is trusted, you should ask. Mistakes happen, and that mistake could shut you down. If the attachment is legitimate, you should still scan it before opening just in case there’s an unintentional virus stuck to it. After all, it never hurts to use some extra caution.

You don’t have to leave the door open or the locks off when dealing with viruses. Just implement a few basic security practices, and you’ve made your network infinitely safer. It doesn’t take much time or thought, but it could make a huge difference. After all, you never know who will come knocking at your door.