Web Safety NZ New Zealand Internet Safety
Internet vs Virus vs Productivity – It All Catches Up Eventually. Ever wondered why a computer gets a virus? Ever thought where the virus comes from? The answer is simple. Computer viruses come from either a portable device plugged into it, or from the internet.
Computer viruses come in many forms. Malware that may slow your machine down or interfere with running processes; root kits that may harvest information such as account names and passwords, then email that info back in stealth mode; viruses that aggressively interrupt the functioning of a computer, and others that delete files.
The end result is that eventually someone has to carry out some remediation on that machine. If the machine owner has the technical capabilities, they will need to clean the machine or possibly rebuild it, in a worst case scenario. Otherwise it involves calling in a PC guy to fix the problem.
In a business environment it becomes a larger issue. Any machine infected with a virus has the potential of infecting the network. A network infected with a virus often leads to technical experts restoring network drives attached to the system. This has the potential to making that data inaccessible for a number of days, many hours of lost producivity and thousands of dollars in lost revenue!
Most businesses have some kind of anti-virus software. BUT in most cases, that software sits on the computer itself. That can prove to be ineffective if the virus entry point is through the internet!
Cleaning infected machines from viruses will always be the priority. However, a business manager should consider the activity the user was involved in to infect the machine in the first place.
I have seen too often, machines being cleaned from viruses, only to be infected again. After forensically auditing the internet activity, I find a pattern of internet surfing to sites known for virus infection as well as much non-work related internet surfing throughout the day. That behaviour usually has been occurring for several months!