Virus costs Council £1 Million

Posted on 4/09/2009 by David Couzens
Lab Tech, Security

A shocking article published on the wire recently tells of how it is going to cost Ealing Council up to £1 million when repair caused by a Conficker Virus infection, and to protect against future attacks.  It was unknowingly introduced to their network by a user’s USB memory stick. Check out the article from ITPRO here.

The threat that Conficker and other viruses pose, along with the common security vulnerabilities present in networks, are an all together very real threat for many businesses.

We use our managed services platform, Kaseya, to automatically scan and patch all of our clients’ workstations and servers on a regular basis. It’s scan detects Conficker in particular, and the patches required to prevent it. In addition, we ensure water tight end user security using Symantec’s Endpoint Protection threat prevention system.  It automatically scans any external media connected to a workstation to ensure it doesn’t contain any harmful viruses.

These are important technologies to consider in leveraging an appropriate level of defence for your business.

Internet Explorer 8 is the safest browser!

Posted on 26/08/2009 by Matthew O`Neill
Internet Explorer 8, Lab Tech, Microsoft, Security

In a series of recent studies undertaken by NSS Labs, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 web browser has outperformed the competition in its ability to detect and prevent malware, phishing and other common internet based threats. The competition being the latest versions of Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera.

With the huge increase in regular internet use, potential cyber based dangers have grown. The most common and highest impact of these are socially engineered malware (websites or pop-ups actively attempting to coerce users into downloading viruses/malware) and phishing (websites or online communications pretending to be from a official source to try to steal user information such as usernames, passwords, etc)

Whilst you may prefer some of the alternative browsers, it is important business users consider the security implications. It may well be best to stick to IE8 to avoid potential threats and reduce your support overheads.

Check out the overview results here, and the detailed reports here.