What are Malware and Viruses? »

These two types of software are very similar to each other although they are not the same thing. Many times mistaken as a virus, malware can wreak havoc on any PC that it has infected. It may also drive the user to the brink of insanity. Malware or “Malicious Software” is any piece of software written directly with the intent of doing harm to the file system of your PC. Malware may be downloaded to your PC unintentionally through either a peer-to-peer file sharing program or through an opened email attachment. Malware may actually contain other malicious software such as viruses, worms, spyware, and adware. The malware software may actually corrupt the file system of your PC causing it to come to a slow crawl or even a screeching halt!
On the other hand, viruses, which are also attained through downloaded software and opened email attachments, infect the different pieces of software on your computer and may cause you to lose important data. The thing about viruses is that they may also spread to other PCs in your network using a “worm”. This can happen without any interaction from the user, and can cause major problems and even hours of downtime for a business with more than a handful of computers. Many of these viruses have also been used to “take over PCs” and use them to send out mass spam emails as well as to inundate your PC with spyware to grab your personal information.

The risk of having either of these infect your PC(s) can be greatly reduced by having properly updated Anti-Virus software installed on your PC as well as software updates, and Windows Updates.

Top 10 Security Tips For Your Small Business Part 2 »

To continue our Top 10 list of simple (and mostly free) security tips for your small business.

7. Watch out for email attachments

Email attachments can be a wonderful thing. They allow people from all across the world to send pictures to family and friends, businesses to send documents to clients, and sometimes the occasional Powerpoint presentation that somehow didn’t make the trip can be sent directly to you in a matter of seconds. Though, for all of these wonderful things, email attachments can also be very harmful. Many of the most common and harmful viruses are spread through email. These will infect your machine as soon as you open the attachment. The main ways to avoid these nasty viruses are:
Never open an email attachment from someone you do not know. Only open an attachment if it is from someone you know and you were expecting it. If you are sending an attachment to someone else, let them know ahead of time. And last, but certainly not least, have an Anti-Virus program, such as Norton Anti-Virus (updated daily) that will scan incoming and outgoing emails for viruses.

6. Anti-Virus Software

Having a properly updated Anti-Virus program on your PC is crucial these days. Most Anti-Virus programs such as Norton Anti-Virus, Trend Micro, McAfee, and AVG all do updates daily in the background, so you don’t have to worry about it. Without an Anti-Virus program, accidentally opening the wrong attachment, or clicking on the wrong pop-up on a website, may open the door for spyware, adware, malware, and viruses to take over your PC.

5. Windows Updates and patches

I was just working on a PC yesterday and noticed that we are up to 93 Windows Updates AFTER the Windows XP SP2 update. That’s quite a few updates! Most of these updates are actually security patches for either Windows or the programs that are running with Windows, such as Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player, etc… These updates are important because they help to close “backdoors” that hackers have found that allow them to compromise your data and your privacy. Having some type of firewall, an anti-virus program and not opening strange email attachments will protect against most of your common threats. Though, to take it one step further and keep your data safe, set your Windows Updates to automatic and let it do it’s thing. There can be exceptions to this rule, though not commonly. Feel free to ask me any questions if you are having any troubles with your Windows Updates.

 Click here to see tips 8 through 10 and stay tuned until next time for the Top 4 security tips!

What exactly is Adware »

To continue our journey into the land of annoying pop-ups and information stealing software, let’s talk about Adware.

Adware is in the same group as spyware (privacy-invasive software) in that Adware may be used to allow Spyware into your PC. If the program you are using has Adware built-in, it may display or download advertisements to your PC at any time. (Ever had pop-ups out of nowhere? Even while not on the internet? That’s one example of Adware) Most software developers may use this as a means to offer free software or software at a reduced cost (since they are being paid by whomever they are advertising for). Though as I stated above these adware programs basically leave the door open for spyware programs.

To keep your PC ad free, I recommend running a program called Ad-Aware on your PC(s) at least once per month. This will scout out those nasty Adware registry files and program files. It also deletes them for you, how great is that!

Check out part 1 of What exactly are Spyware, Adware, Malware, and Viruses to find out more information on Spyware.

The Importance of Data Backups »

These days almost any business large or small has some type of important electronic data that they rely on. Whether it be email, financial, or basic documentation this data can be crucial to keeping your business running smoothly and efficiently. However, a simple PC crash can cause many hours of hard work to be lost instantly. Even worse, having some sort of natural disaster, be it a hurricane, flooding, fire, etc… can cause you to lose thousands of dollars in data loss. Hardware can be covered and replaced by your insurance company, data on the other hand, once lost, is gone forever (or at least until someone goes through the lucrative task of trying to rebuild years of data in a few weeks.) Here are two simple words that could be your saving grace from any of these horrible events: Disaster Recovery

Having a Disaster Recovery plan in place will give you the peace of mind to concentrate on the other areas of your business instead of having to worry about data loss. Crystal Coast Technologies offers a Disaster Recovery plan that will fit your business needs through something called Online Backups. These online backups will back up your important data off-site and have it available to be restored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Before your data is sent off-site, it will be encrypted and completely secured so that your data stays completely safe. With Crystal Coast Technologies your data is going to be safe and there for you when you need it.

Click here to learn more about our Online Backup Solutions.