Protect your USB from Viruses

Thumb drives or USB drives are popular among almost every PC user. Compact storage is offered to store projects, documents. The IT staff uses them to cart around tools. As these drives are popular and data is transferred between several systems frequently they are a soft target for hackers and intruders thereby spreading the infection.

In several firms USB drives are not allowed to be used as it can infect system easily. Silent applications are installed on workstations which would detect a drive when it has been inserted. That software would notify administrators.

Attackers would get infection through standard mediums with the help of bogus spam mail, exploits. The infection would not attack the system directly but would wait for any external device to be plugged in. After it has been plugged in, the virus transfers malicious code to device without knowing what is happening. The drive has become a tool which would transport the code he/she wants to the computer you plug the drive into may be the system in the office.   

Malicious code can steal personal information, sensitive documents, allow external access and even spread the virus to a system network. There are people who think that they have an encrypted flash drive so they are safe. It is wrong to think so. The encrypted ones are meant for data loss or theft. 

Digital photo kiosks are major distribution points for infections. If photo kiosk computers are infected it would be easy when thousands of people walk in and insert memory cards at Wal-Mart. What do you do to protect yourself against these activities? 

Now use the security features. Use sophisticated antivirus support. Use encryption as well as passwords on USB drive to protect data as well as ensure that you have details backed up in case you lost the drive. Just keep business USB drives as well as personal ones separate. Never use the personal drive on systems owned by your company and never plug USB drives that have corporate data into personal PC.

Maintain as well as use antivirus software and it updated. See to it that you use a reliable antivirus support. Use an antivirus, firewall and an anti-spyware software to make the system computer less susceptible to attacks. This can be done by using necessary patches. Never plug an unknown USB drive into your computer. In case you find an unclaimed USB drives give it to authorities. Never plug it into your computer to view contents or to identify the owner.

Some tech savvy users utilize virtual machine technology. If you use virtual machine software you can have a copy of an OS when checking email attachments, downloaded files and external storage devices for infections. If the virtual machine becomes infected then it can be restored easily from snapshot or an image. The data or even the device can be cured prior to being used on host operating system or any other computer.  

How does Cloud Antivirus Execute its Function?

Any PC user be it tech savvy or not very well knows that there is a need to protect the computer from virus. You can prevent malware from attacking data you can use antivirus support. Cloud antivirus is the latest technology which can be used. 

You have to use this software to prevent malware from attacking your data. The cloud antivirus software executes its job somewhere else on the internet rather than the system’s hard drive. Cloud computing has made innovation even more affordable.  

This application consists of Web service and client components working jointly. It is a small program which runs on your local system and scans the system for malware. The cloud client need only small amount of processing power.   

The Web service behind this is software running on one or even more servers someplace on the Internet. Most of the data processing is handled by the Web service so the system need not process as well as store huge virus information. The client would scan the system for any malware listed in the service database.  

Below given the advantages of cloud antivirus:

Within minutes of the service you would have access to the latest data about malware. You need not update the application continuously to ensure that you have been protected from latest threats. 

 

This client is small and requires little processing power as the daily activities are being done.  

It is also available for free and you can get an imposing level of virus protection from free versions of the software. You can even purchase upgrades for the extra support and utilities. They are competitively priced.  

Below given features of this antivirus support: 

User interface looks familiar to that of the normal one. Its main job is similar to the other application. 

It scans the system or even certain folders. 

You can adjust when to make scans automatically and the files to be include in them.

You can view detailed reports to see which malware was detected during a scan.  

It would take actions to restore or remove quarantined files.  

It divides its task between client application and Web servers elsewhere on the Internet. It can loud can control resources from every corners of the Internet to defend your computer against malware. For each product, the resources come collectively in order to form a vital database of malware data.

This data is collected in various ways depending on the product. This application’s servers run algorithms on the data which would categorize malware through qualities as well as threat level.   

They quickly make data available to you. Your system would be scanned quickly for latest threats while you are online and catching the bugs within minutes of them being added to database.

If you are accessing offline then the product would keep a cache of malware data on local computer. The cache would be updated when you are online.  

The other side of cloud antivirus

Some do argue that this lacks certain essential components for security and performance. Privacy invasion is a major concern due to the collected data from the computer. Prior to selecting such a product you can find out which data from the system could be part of the collective database. However it does have same concerns as that of the traditional antivirus program.  

Tips to Choose a Good Online Backup Service

There are several options as well as services available while choosing an online or off site data backup service. If you are not familiar with the criterion or what to ask, then you could commit a terrible mistake which can cost you money, time and not to forget the data too. Here we would speak on what mandatory options which you are looking for. You can use it to assist while making a decision.   

A company which offers a backup service has expenses which can affect the price you would pay. There are some which can sell in high volume and even give a discount to customers. However when price is cheaper compared to others then there is a reason. A company can cut cost by not having any adequate network infrastructure in that place. This would not restore your data. The "backed up" data may not even be there. The data which you would provide the company to keep safe may not be able to give the back when you need it the most. You should restore data once a month in order to verify backups. Other way they reduce cost is by having tech assistance located in different countries. Obviously we know how well it works form our experience. While considering online backup firm call tech support and check who answers phone and how well they know the product. You should know the company, their manner of operation and the services they provide.

Security is a big deal with much information now passing through internet as well as hackers trying to steal as well as sell everything they can. Ensure that before backing up data through the internet, it remains secure and safe. This can be done by verifying that backup software encrypts data prior to leaving the system and stay encrypted when stored on the company equipment. You should look for 128-bit encryption. Have data transferred using SSL making it harder for intruders to intercept, but even if it happens the data is encrypted.

Just because data has been encrypted and backed up off-site does not mean that it is safe. If any natural disaster occurs know how safe is the place where data resides? Data facilities and their reliable should be known before you back up critical data.

You should have a history of backups available to restore from. In case you have data versions you can go back in history to last time or day you had made a successful backup before the data goes corrupted. History goes back to at least 7 days or versions. Some even go back to 30, 10 or even 90 days and even years.

You can sit down with a well versed technician as well as decide which is best for specific company needs. If you have the right backup in place then it would give you peace of mind as well as protect data.

Pros and Cons of Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is designed to protect the system from external as well as malicious programs like a spyware, Virus, Trojan, malware etc. There are several types of applications available in the market many of which also work even as an antispyware. 

But there are disadvantages with every program as well as impairs the performance of the machine and in several cases become allow. There are also few disadvantages associated with this Antivirus support. Sometimes it impairs the system as well as makes it slow. If you speak about a standard application then it should not be affecting the performance of the PC. 

Whenever we speak about increasing the performance of the PC it also comes to us the program being used and if it is heavy as well as occupy huge space then the user might even think to get rid of it from PC. However using it is highly important for security reasons as well as from the performance point of view. There are times when we see that even after getting rid of a system cleaner there remain parts of the uninstalled software and these can create issues like disrupting normal functioning of the PC and slow speed. Shutting down as well as freezing.

There are many available online both paid versions and freeware are difficult to understand while they are being installed. There are several such programs which follow signature based detection within an executable file. But there are chances where you would not find any such pattern. Normally antivirus support follows a heuristic approach. File emulation is something which is used by several security programs. It is also a heuristic technique.  

It is not easy to develop a protective program which cannot cure the system without even affecting PCs performance or without leaving PC. However one has to remember as well as follow a simple approach as far as how it should work is concerned. It should work in such a way that it does not slow down the performance and even damage normal function of the system.  

A virus is extremely dangerous to a system. Not all are fool-proof and without demerits. However the benefits prevail over the consequences of malware. There are times when these deny access to legal programs. If the system downloads a file or runs it properly, then it may be due to the one running in the background.