Business news and advise

One thing that’s vital to stay on top of is making sure that your business has adequate internet security.  It can be one of those things that gets forgotten unless you keep a regular diary note to check it’s up to date and working efficiently for your business.

You may decide that you wish to change the antivirus programme that you have, having heard good things about a different brand.

But, before you uninstall your existing antivirus programme, do some research to check that the one you want to change to is as good as the competition out there. There are different programmes coming out all the time, and some are better than others.

A business needs to be covered for antivirus, anti-spyware, have a spam filter and firewall set up.  Make sure that any internet security software you choose covers all these.

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security in thinking that you’re completely protected by installing antivirus software. The basic functions of an internet security programme are:

• Scanning emails for any attached viruses
• Monitoring files to check they are not infected when you open them
• Regular scanning of all files on the computer to check for infections

There are things that it won’t protect you against:

• Programmes you install that might have unwanted features
• Spam
• Hackers trying to access your computer via the internet
• Online criminal or fraudulent activities

Of course, any antivirus software will be completely ineffective if you switch it off, and only partially effective if you don’t update it regularly with the latest virus signatures.  These are updates made by security firms on different viruses as and when they occur.  Downloading the new virus signatures allows your antivirus software to block those particular viruses.