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Viruses and Electronic
Threats - Frequently Asked Questions
July 15, 2007Introduction
More than ever before, companies are relying on the
Internet to assist them with their day-to-day business activities. As
more and more employees require access to the Internet, firms are
encountering greater threats to their "information assets".
Questions
1. In the simplest
of terms, what are viruses, worms and trojan horses?
Viruses, worms, and Trojan horse programs are various types of hidden,
and unwanted, electronic threats. For the most part, they don’t damage
your computer hardware, only your software, system configuration, and
valuable data files.
2. What's the
difference between the three?
Malware (malicious software) - Specifically designed program to disrupt
or damage your systems.
Trojan Horse - a destructive program that masquerades as a benign
application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves.
Virus - A program or piece of code loaded onto your computer without
your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate
themselves. They may damage your systems by deleting files, corrupting
documents, and using the computer's memory and processor.
Worm - a special type of virus that can replicate itself and uses
memory. Unlike other types of viruses, it cannot attach itself to
programs.
3. Should
businesses be concerned about them? Especially businesses without an IT
department?
Electronic threats such as viruses, Trojan horses, and worms have the
ability to destroy the internal software configuration of a computer
system. In addition, these threats also have the ability to completely
destroy any data that exists on the machines. Unfortunately, many
businesses don’t have adequate protection. Since the threats are hidden,
firms may not take appropriate steps to protect their organization from
a disruption in their business operations.
4. What should
businesses be concerned about?
Many businesses know about the visible threats such as vandalism, theft,
and fire. Harder to evaluate are hidden threats such as hackers and
viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. We recommend that businesses
determine the impact to their organization should they experience a
failure in their computer systems. For example, what is the impact over
time if computer systems are unavailable for one day, two days, one
week, two weeks, etc. Since each business is different, each
organization will have a different answer. The organization should take
the appropriate steps, depending upon the criticality of the information
to be protected, to get their systems up and running again within their
required timeframe. Obviously, preventing downtime is preferred.
5. What could
happen? What could businesses lose if they are targeted?
Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses all have the ability to damage your
system configuration and destroy your data. In many instances, you won’t
know the system has been damaged until you try and use it. There are
often no advance warning signs.
6. How can
businesses prevent from being attacked? And what can businesses without
IT departments do to prevent it?
The first step is to establish a reliable method
of backing up your system configuration and your
data. A reliable backup plan includes storing
media off-site. This way you will have your
information available to you even in the event
of a disaster such as a fire. The frequency of
backing up your systems depends upon the
criticality of the information to be protected.
The more valuable the information, the more
frequently it should be backed up and stored
off-site. Once you have a backup solution in
place, the second step is to acquire anti-virus
software. Major vendors such as McAfee and
Symantec provide affordable software protection.
Since new threats emerge on a weekly basis, most
organizations should have the anti-virus
software configured to automatically check for
new updates.7. If an attack
does happen, how can businesses fix the problem?
Threats come in all shapes and sizes. Some viruses only delete certain
types of files while others may wipe out your entire hard drive. I’d
recommend the business contact a computer professional to assist them in
restoring their systems to full functionality. The professional can
determine the extent of the damage and minimize the time it takes to
restore normal operations. The goal is to minimize disruption to the
business operations. As a last resort, the computer professional may
need to restore the entire system from the backup media. Unfortunately,
this may mean that the business has to re-create any transactions or
documents that were created since the date of the most recent backup.
Summary
Each organization has a unique
environment that makes it difficult to protect
against new and emerging threats.
Network and
security assessments help organizations identify,
manage, and reduce their risks.
Publication and Author Information
Jim
Kelton is president of Altius IT, an IT risk
management consulting company based in Santa
Ana,
California. Mr. Kelton has over 30 years of
experience in the Information Technology
industry and is recognized as a security expert.
He is certified by the Information Systems Audit
and Control Association (ISACA) as a Certified
Information Systems Auditor (CISA). Jim Kelton
Altius Information Technologies, Inc.
1506 Brookhollow Drive, Suite 122
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 442-6670
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