One tiny computer snafu at a small business can often spell big problems – lost work time or lost data. To that end, Cox Business Services hosted a technology symposium to provide its small- to medium-sized business customers information on how to protect their computer systems.
“It’s amazing how many people have managed to do bad things to their (computer) networks,” said Bill Dwyer, a contractor for the Tech Advisory Group in Providence.
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One of the first steps a company should take to protect their networks is draft an “acceptable computer use” policy for their employees to sign. The agreement can cover what activities are permitted and prohibited on company computers and help safeguard the systems by banning activities like downloading programs from the Web, Dwyer said.
Especially dangerous to networks are “peer-to-peer” programs such as Kazaa and eDonkey, Dwyer said.
“I strongly suggest you not allow these at your company,” Dwyer said. Peer-to-peer programs share files, he added, and 70 percent of those files are somehow flawed.
Many companies find that dealing with spam can be a costly and time-consuming initiative – one recent study suggests spam costs American businesses more than $20 billion a year.
“There are various solutions to dealing with spam, but a gateway seems best,” Dwyer said. A gateway is a program that filters out spam and doesn’t allow it on to the protected server or into e-mail inboxes on that server.
“If you do end up getting spam, the last thing you should do is click the ‘remove’ link. Don’t open (the message) at all,” Dwyer said.
Reading e-mail messages in text form instead of html – a version that downloads pictures and graphics – is a good strategy to keep from downloading a virus. Another way to keep from downloading e-mail viruses is to disable the preview “pane” in Microsoft Outlook. Keeping the preview pane enabled automatically opens the message.
Dwyer said apply the simple strategy of “if you don’t trust it, don’t download it or open it. Just because you know the person who sent the message doesn’t mean it’s OK.”
Pop-up advertisements can significantly slow down a computer, Dwyer said. Installing pop-up blocking software can be helpful, but those programs can contain spyware.
“Spyware is anything that’s installed on your computer without your knowledge or permission,” he said. “Even if you don’t see anything on your computer, spyware can still be there.”
Dwyer said he’s removed as many as 900 spyware programs off a single computer. People can unknowingly download spyware when they download other programs like screensavers or instant messenger programs.
The best way to remove spyware from a computer is to have the company do it, Dwyer said.
“You don’t want to depend on employees to maintain their own computers,” he said. “You want them to spend their time doing their jobs.”
The best way to avoid spyware is to avoid Microsoft Internet Explorer, Dwyer said. “Use Firefox or another browser instead.” Internet Explorer tends to be a spyware-friendly program.
Installing Windows XP service pack can also help beef up a computer’s safety. The program helps prevent potential viruses from being downloaded in e-mail.
A firewall is another essential part of protecting any computer network, Dwyer said.
“Without it, you have no protection from hacker attacks,” he said. Dwyer said he strongly recommends any business install firewall hardware.
