Here’s a true story with the names changed to protect the innocent…
During Friday’s lunch break, Susan ate lunch at her desk so she could surf the Internet for discount coupons at a local general dealer to use over the weekend. She discovered that she needed to temporarily disable her anti-virus software so a coupon printer could be installed. She felt it was innocent enough because the web site explained this was a common step in the process of accessing the discount coupons. Besides, she really wanted the 25% savings!
The next day at the general dealer's store, Susan discovers her discount coupons are worthless counterfeits. That’s because they were printed from a coupon web site designed to fool the end user into downloading a program that would connect her computer to a network of bots (also called a botnet). This network of illegally hacked computers is used to flood the Internet (and your inbox) with spam.
When Susan got in Monday morning, she discovered the company’s entire e-mail server was blacklisted as a spam source stopping ALL e-mail communications internally, as well as to clients and vendors. It took two full days to discover the source of the spam, clean up the mail server, and begin the process of removing Susan’s company from the blacklist at clients, vendors and various anti-spam monitoring services. It took another two weeks before everything was back to normal.
Don’t let this happen to you! This episode could have been prevented with properly installed and monitored anti-malware software, an anti-malware network appliance and an acceptable use policy in place for all employees to follow. There are more than 12 million zombie computers in the United States alone. If your network hasn’t been attacked yet, it will. Though this numbers game is rigged in favor of the bad guys, you don’t have to let it destroy your company’s productivity and good reputation!
If you are unsure if you have the proper software and procedures in place to prevent these problems from happening, please give us a call on 087 806 1330.
Happy Networking!
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