Posted by Laura Shafer on Fri, Feb 26, 2010 @ 04:09 PM
You may think there isn't much you can do once a virus strikes. Updating security seems a little like locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, but it isn't necessarily so. Preventing the next attack is a good place to start.
Here are some steps you can take:
Put in reputable and reliable anti-virus software across your business. Then follow that up by always making sure virus definition files are updated for everyone.
Set up firewalls then test your servers to make sure they can handle all kinds of attacks.
Make sure you take the time to educate your users. Let them know the Web sites they visit -- even reputable ones -- might be infected. So they shouldn't download software unless they're sure it's safe.
Make sure you're backups continue to be up to date.
That last one is a great second line of defense. It's something you can do that proactively addresses the next possible attack. That's how your backup can be another kind of "anti-virus" tool. With a point-in-time solution like ShadowProtect, you can recover your server (or a desktop or laptop) to a known, good state before the attack took place. Plus, your backup should allow you to restore quickly, otherwise it's just as much a problem as the virus that took you down. If you have to wait while you restore terabytes of data, then that won't help business continuity much. You need a solution that can get you up and running in a matter of minutes, not hours.
The next time you're updating your anti-virus software or fine-tuning your firewall, consider that you might want to make sure you have a plan in place in case your first line of defense doesn't hold.