A Healthy Computer Immune System to Fight Viruses and Recover Quickly
by Tony Rushin
Even healthy people get viruses. But the better we take care of ourselves – with diet, sleep and exercise – the less often we get sick. Personally I used to get a cold or sinus infection at least once each year; 5 years ago I started taking good daily supplements and I’ve only gotten 1 cold since then.
In the same way, healthy computers can get a virus. In my August 1st blog I wrote that to get and stay healthy – as a computer – there isn’t just 1 thing we need to do. There are 3 areas to pay attention to on a consistent basis: infrastructure, antivirus software and updates. My last blog focused on infrastructure; this blog will focus antivirus software.
Note that antivirus software doesn’t just take care of viruses; it should take care of all of the Big 4 of Malware: viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware. Here are some tips:
Tip #1: Choose the paid version of a market-leading antivirus software. None of them are perfect (remember, the bad guys are smart and they’re always working) but your odds of getting better protection go up with a market-leader. Here are some to consider: McAfee, Symantec, Kaspersky, Trend Micro.
Tip #2: Have your IT support personnel use a SaaS-based or server-based version of antivirus software for your firm. That way they can manage licensing and updates for all workstations through a single portal (more on updates in my next blog).
Tip #3: Have your antivirus software set to scan every email and every download from the internet.
Tip #4: In addition to the regular antivirus software that’s always running on your computer, have a second and even third version of antivirus software ready to use if needed to clean up a nasty malware attack. For instance we use a SaaS version of McAfee for our 1-Guard antivirus protection and if we need to clean up some malware that gets through we may download and run a scan from a utility like Malwarebytes, TDSSKiller or Rkill depending on the situation.
Tip #5: For tip #4 it’s important to note that you should only have 1 version of antivirus software actively running at a time. Having multiple antivirus packages running will negatively impact the performance of your computer.
In my next blog I’ll provide tips for applying updates and hey: “let’s be careful out there”!
This is the 11th of 23 blogs I’m writing to celebrate the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators’ 23rd annual Business Partner Expo. This year the Business Partner Expo will be held from 3:00 – 6:30 pm on August 17th at the Cobb Galleria. Over 150 legal administrators and their guests are expected to be on hand learning about the latest technologies, finding solutions to business issues, uncovering emerging trends and developing valuable partnerships to help their law firms. Already an AALA member? I’ll see you there! Not an AALA member? Give me a call at 404.943.0800 x133 to discuss how you might be able to attend as a guest!
