Importance of Anti-Virus Protection
Do you know what a real computer virus looks like?
Hollywood and Netflix have painted an image of a virus sliding into your network controlled by a hoodie-wearing kid in a dark room with green text reflected off the screen. But that could not be further from the truth.
The reality is that malicious programs are far more common, fully automated, and are a real security threat for businesses. They are more like the Terminator, an autonomous system out of a sci-fi film that scours the internet looking for networks with vulnerabilities that they can infiltrate and exploit.
Worse than a lone hacker, there are millions of dangerous entities circling the internet, always looking to break in and corrupt twenty-four hours a day. And to win this escalating arms race, you need a cooperative program on your side. An anti-virus program.
What type of viruses are there?
You might think that the above paragraph was a bit of a scare tactic, but here are some real scenarios that can happen if your system is not protected. This is by no means an extensive list, but a brief foray into the dark underbelly of the internet:
- Boot sector virus – This virus can lurk on email attachments and find its way into your boot disk (where your operating system resides), causing the computer to shut down or not even operate.
- Macro virus – Common in programs like Microsoft Word or emails, this virus activates when you open a document or attachment and can cause havoc to unprotected systems.
- Spyware – This type of program might not damage your computer, but it will hurt your business. Watching from the shadows of your computer, this virus catches bank information, passwords, or financial transactions in its net, before selling them on the black market.
- Malware – Malware viruses can be very sinister, with common types locking your hard drive files for a ransom fee or installing annoying adware to bloat your internet browser.
- Botnet – The most insidious virus on this list turns your computer, or entire office network, into a zombie computer system. You can still use your computer, but 95% of your computers’ processing power goes to operate illegal denial of service strikes or launch new virus attack waves.
While you can avoid many of the items on this list by being incredibly cautious, you won’t catch them all. Besides, if your network has other team members accessing it daily for work, the odds are that someone else may slip up.
Thus, you need a safety net like an anti-virus program to ensure you are not caught out. But not all defence anti-virus programs are equal.
What makes one anti-virus program better than others?
It may seem like users are playing catch-up, yet with the right anti-virus program, you can deploy the virus’s most potent features against them.
- Endpoint Detection – Discover what viruses are targeting and where your weak points are in your network.
- Anti-Ransomware – Prevent your files from being locked away for ransom with backups and boot record protection.
- Machine learning – Using AI technology to discover new viruses’ before they are even catalogued.
- Exploit protection – Protect common exploits in systems that hackers can use to gain access.
- Threat response – An actual human team on standby 24/7 to step in and make changes to your anti-virus system to prevent significant attacks.
- Mitigation technology – Prevent viruses from habituating your system and activity remove any programs that are out of place.
With all the features above, Sophos Endpoint Protection is uniquely suited for Internet defence.
