1. Removable data-storage devices
2. Personal devices (including handhelds) of employees
More than 60% of employees remotely access a corporate network from personal devices, including mobile phones.
People who like their jobs work not only in the office but while they commute and also at home. They often sacrifice hours of rest while staying connected. Business willingly takes advantage of such an approach. In many companies people always stay out of office and access the network remotely.
Office computers are no longer the only targets of cyber-attacks—personal devices (including mobile phones) are at risk too.
- Up to 70% of infections get into a corporate environment from personal laptops, netbooks, ultrabooks, mobile devices, and removable media (flash drives) often brought from home.
- Around 60% of home computers have no anti-virus protection! So outside their office, people work with devices prone to be compromised by hackers, applications they use may have vulnerabilities and their computers can be infested with viruses and Trojans. And yet these people regularly access the company's network.
It greatly increases the risk of data leaks and its unauthorized modification.
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It is in the best interest of a company to ensure the security of all devices used by its staff, wherever they use them and whoever owns them.
This is the only way to ensure that the personal computers of staff in the network will not get infected.
3. Websites
People need to read the news on the Internet and be informed. The danger is that most office staff:
- Browse the internet from their office computers running programs that may have vulnerabilities;
- Perform their tasks under an administrator account in Windows;
- Use weak passwords;
- Do not install security updates for programs they use.
Uncontrolled web-surfing increases the risk of data leakage and of unauthorized data modification.
Carberp family Trojans penetrate a computer while one browses a compromised site. There is no need to take any action to get the system infected. It occurs automatically.
Sites that are more likely to be sources of malware (in descending order of incident frequency)
- Sites related technology and telecommunications.
- Business: business outlets, business news portals, accounting related sites and forums, online courses/lectures, services to improve business efficiency.
- Adult content websites.
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Dr.Web anti-virus features allow you to:
- In part restrict access to the Internet
- Create and use black and white lists of addresses, so you won't have to block access to the full Internet for an employee if it is need to do their job.
- Block access to the Internet, where it is essential (for example, on computers running accounting software).
- Make it impossible for an employee to remove the restrictions locally.
4. Email
Mail traffic is the main transport for viruses and spam. If malware infects a computer, it can access the employee's address book which along with contacts of other employees may contain addresses of customers and partners - that is, the infection won't be confined to the corporate network but will spread outside.
Carelessness, negligence and ignorance of the simple basics of computer security are often the reasons why computers become a part of botnets, and a source of spam, which damages the company's image, can get it onto a black list and force the provider to disconnect from the Internet for sending out spam.
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- Email traffic should be scanned before messages are downloaded by a mail client to prevent exploitation of its vulnerabilities by malicious code.
- Only comprehensive solutions for e-mail, combining anti-virus and anti-spam, can ensure its protection and reduce costs unrelated to production, i.e., losses arising from organization and management shortcomings).
- An anti-virus protection system must be installed not only on PCs and file servers, but also on mail servers and local network gateways. In the absence of these protection components:
- Unknown viruses can spread freely over the network and get into employees' mailboxes;
- Once malware has infected unprotected hosts in the local network they will serve as a source of malware infections and will be getting updates from their developers.
Important!
No software other than an anti-virus can clean the mail database from malicious software that has penetrated it with e-mails.
5. Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability is a flaw in the software which can be exploited to compromise its integrity, render it non-operational. There are vulnerabilities in every piece of software. There are no invulnerable programs.
Modern virus writers exploit vulnerabilities not only in operating systems but also in applications (browsers, office products, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and plug-ins for browsers to display flash).
A virus can get to your computer by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability (a vulnerability that is still only known to virus writers or hasn't been closed by the software vendor) or a user may fall for a social engineering trick and launch the virus file and even disable anti-virus's self-defence.
Important!
No software other than an anti-virus can clean the system from malicious software that has penetrated it by exploiting vulnerability.
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Keeping installed software up to date is as important as updating your OS. Theoretically any error in the program code can be used to cause harm to the system. Will it be a short-term failure or a serious data loss, in this case does not matter. To avoid this, it is important to monitor the condition of your software and promptly download updates or new versions.
Important!
No other software requires such frequent updating as an anti-virus. New viruses are being written all the time, and virus databases are updated with a very high frequency.
Never disable automatic updating!
6. Social engineering techniques
Most modern malware found in the wild can not spread on its own and is meant to be distributed by users.
It is users, ignorant of computer security basics or simply tired or careless, who unintentionally facilitate penetration of malware into a network (use USB devices, open e-mails from unknown senders, surf the web during working hours).
To distribute Trojan horses, virus writers resort to social engineering techniques to take advantage of users, trick them into launching malicious files. Tricks for many: phishing links, false le-mails from banks or social networking site administration and much more. The aim of all social engineering techniques is to acquire personal information ranging from passwords to access various web services to confidential and bank account information.
In an effort to teach users security basics Doctor Web creates training courses, designed for a wide range of PC users, and offers free online computer basics tests Knowledge acquired while studying such courses helps to cope better with computer threats.
Doctor Web educational portal: training.drweb.com
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