The news these days is full of global virus outbreaks. It reminds me of Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, & the Lion skipping down the Yellow Brick Road singing about all the evils that lie in wait for them just ahead.
Many folks ask me, what is the difference between Spyware, Adware, Viruses, Ransomware, and all the other evils that lie in wait for us on the “information highway”. Is there a “silver bullet” solution that we can arm our computer with to prevent them all?
To know what makes these infections different from each other, you first need to understand what they do. The names above are often used inter-changeably. They describe software that has been installed on your computer to do things that you did not intend, or want to be done. I refer to all of them simply as “Malware”. It is software written with Malicious intent. Hence the term Malware.
The normal applications on your computer are designed to do specific tasks for you. Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox are for you to surf the web. Outlook is for you to read and send email. Word is for you to write documents.
Malware is designed specifically to do things for someone other than you.
Ransomware is for extorting money from you, for the bad guy. Adware is for showing advertisements to you, for someone else. Spyware is for reporting your activities to someone. Essentially, it is not “for you”.
Every day over 5,000 new forms of Malware are discovered. There is a time gap between when a new strain is released and when simple antivirus software has any way to recognize and stop them. This explains why thousands of infections are reported (sometimes 10’s of thousands).
What is called for is multi-layered protection. Something that looks at the software code, all the activity on your computer, and all the network traffic being generated. Securing the network activity is a critical stage of disrupting the malware’s ability to “phone home”.
Many of my business and residential clients have had me install ESET Endpoint Security on their computers. The cost is less than a dollar a week, so it is not a difficult decision to make. This enterprise-class product includes Network Attack protection, Botnet protection, Exploit Blocker, and World-class antivirus and antispyware.
ESET Endpoint Security detected and prevented the May 12th outbreak of WannaCry on the computers secured by it. It’s hard to estimate the savings to my clients, who avoided this outbreak. That’s what I would call a “silver-bullet”.
Check out my special pricing on ESET End Point Security here.