One of the many responsibilities of running your own business is protecting your assets, and your computers are included as your part of these. They also hold the key to much valuable information about you, your business, your bank accounts….the list goes on.
It’s estimated that over 150 malware programmes are written and released on the internet every day, so if you’re online at all, there’s a chance of your computer being infected with a virus.
So, it’s vital that you have good antivirus software installed on all the computers in your business. You can do this by downloading a programme from the internet or buying a software package from your local computer supplier.
If you don’t have anything installed as yet, it’s a good idea to start with an online scan. These are popular as you don’t need to download a file for it to do its work. But, if your system gets infected with a virus or Trojan, you may find it impossible to get online at all, so it’s far safer to install some antivirus software now – prevention is better than cure.
There is a huge range of internet security software to choose from, including free antivirus downloads, through to full-blown internet security suites that not only have antivirus, they also have spam filters, anti-spyware and firewall as well.
Shop around and look at what different packages include. Get advice from people in your business network as to which programmes they have found reliable – or not. If you’re not sure which to go for, sign up to a trial version for 30 -90 days and try it out for a few weeks before committing yourself.
When considering your business computers, don’t forget about protecting any smartphones that you have. With internet access and email facilities, mobile devices are just as susceptible to attack as computers. Mobile antivirus programmes are available from the same companies that sell antivirus software for computers.