70 years ago, businesses relied on the telephone or telegrams for fast communications, whereas today they depend on email. Back then there were severe limitations on what could be transmitted, but today businesses send and receive large or urgent documents instantly without having to print, post or courier physical copies. The old equipment was more mechanical and not open to attacks from hostile viruses, phishing and ransomware threats that we see now, although with the assistance of a professional IT support provider businesses can be confident in the security of their computers.
Perhaps the most common external threat is infection from computer viruses. An easy solution is to install anti-virus software, but if you have servers managing networked devices with multiple users, this can be a complex task. And it’s not just installation that takes time – the software has to be managed to ensure it’s updated with profiles of the latest threats so that nothing gets through to your systems that could harm them. Your IT support provider can take care of this for you by selecting the best anti-virus protection to handle threats ranging from email attacks to external USB drives plugged into computers, ensuring that you don’t experience performance loss as it scans and protects in the background. This will ensure that emails from important clients are not wrongly rejected and are scanned quickly so that you can process them without delay. When a major threat is flagged by the IT industry, your IT support provider will ensure your protection is up to date and ready to deal with it.
In addition to anti-virus software, there are systems that can scan your emails to identify suspect emails aiming to launch phishing and ransomware attacks. In a phishing attack criminals steal confidential identity or financial data often by deceiving you into clicking a suspect link and handing over confidential details, while in a ransomware attack criminals take control of and lock you out of your systems so that they can demand a ransom in return for giving you back access. Criminals might also be able to destroy all your data in a ransomware attack.
It is also essential to introduce strict IT security processes which all users must follow without fail. This includes managing passwords to ensure they are secure enough to withstand attacks and educating employees to recognise potential attacks and follow specific procedures to deal with them.
No system is infallible, although many attacks are made possible by users ignoring security processes or plugging in unprotected devices. When an attack is launched, you need to isolate and disarm it as fast as possible. An expert IT support provider can tackle this immediately to stop a virus or malware in its tracks, protect the rest of your system, remove the intruder program and restore the system to its original state. Operating suitable, up-to-date anti-virus software is the best starting point for this, which will make recovery and data restoration faster and easier.
If this sounds a nightmare, it shouldn’t with professional and responsive IT support. Your IT support provider should be able to take care of all this so that you don’t have to worry and can concentrate solely on running your business.
FX7 Solutions has considerable expertise in IT security, including anti-virus software and protection from phishing and ransomware attacks. We’d be happy to chat through the options to put your mind at rest.
