New England Data Services Blog

4 Ways to Combat Malware

We've all heard it before. "Make sure you have anti-virus, a firewall, anti-spyware, anti-malware, etc, etc, etc."  Sadly enough though, there is still a good portion of the public that routinely surfs the Internet to random websites, and clicks on links in emails, facebook accounts, and myspace accounts with little to no protection of their sensitive information.

I spent the better part of my night a week ago ridding a family member's computer of malware. Malware, for those who may not be familiar with the term  is defined as software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent on Wikipedia. Malware can come from virtually anywhere. It could be from a picture someone sends you in an email that looks and seems completely legit or a website you've visited. A user will usually become infected with this by no action of their own or in some instances by clicking on a link on a website. Most malware installs a program on your machine that will open it up to more malware, trojan horse's, or viruses. Many user do not even notice that they have been infected. 

There are some simple practices you can train yourself to do to counteract this threat. I have personally employed all of these and have not been infected with malware for over 6 years.

1. DO NOT click on links in emails, even if they come from friends and family.
   
• Most malware, spyware, and viruses come from via email. If you have never received a link from a friend in email before why would you get one now?
  
• If a link looks like this: Click Here! DO NOT!! Think about how many people you know that actually label their links these days. Most people just copy and paste the whole link. (This example of course, is safe and does not lead anywhere).
  
2. DO NOT go to web sites with questionable or illegal material
• These sites are usually riddled with all kinds of malicious programs and code.
3. Beware of "Free Software"
• Ask yourself why the software is free in the first place. It may be providiing you with what it says it does, but what it doesn't say is usually the issue. Programs such as "Comet Cursor" and "Hotbar" from a few years back are great examples of this. They would provide users with what they wanted, but at a price as both were notorious for tracking your activities and sending information to marketing databases.
  
• A slightly more notable piece of software that sent user habits and information back to its source for marketing and advertising purposes was Weatherbug. It provided what seemed to be a useful service, however users began noticing it using quite a bit of system resources and the truth came out.
  
4. MOST IMPORTANT - Make sure you have protection and that it is up to date and scanning regularly.
• Many notable software companies provide protection for these types of problems. Find the one you trust most and make sure it auto-updates daily if possible and set it to scan your machine on a regular basis (again, daily if possible).

When it comes to businesses, you can never be too careful. Businesses are often the targets of attacks where the attacker is specifically trying to get access to customer information. Make sure your protection is up to date and inspected regularly!