The effect of malicious programs (malware) and viruses on businesses are time-consuming to deal with, and very disrupting to the day to day business operations. In this blog, we will discuss some ideas on how to protect your business from malware and viruses.

Firstly, lets focus on the hardware – there are a few very basic ways you can keep your computers safe:

1. Install Anti-Virus/Malware Software.
   Antivirus protection is a must-have to keep your computer system and hardware virus free.
   
2. Keep Your Anti-Virus Software Up to Date.
   Having Antivirus software is the first step; maintaining it is the second. (E.g. pay maintenance fees on time to keep the software to date).
   
3. Schedule antivirus Scans software to run in your system.
   This is very important. Set up your antivirus to run at regular intervals.
   Notes: It is difficult to work on your computer, and SAGE 300 CRE accounting software while your anti-virus software is running.
   a. Be sure add file exclusions to active scanning, and to scan these files at a time when they are not in use (for example, schedule a daily scan at 3:00 a.m.).
   b. Configure your AV software to quarantine rather than delete suspected files as some AV applications use predictive methods which may result in false positive detection of viruses in legitimate files.

Next are more practical day to day things you can do to protect your business from viruses and malware.

1. Keep Your Windows Operating System Up to Date.
   Microsoft is always issuing security patches that fix and promote security leaks. These patches will help to keep your system secure. Similarly, keep your anti-virus software up to date.
   
2. Think Before You Click.
   Do not open an email attachment from somebody or a company that you do not know. Do not click on a link in an unsolicited email.
   
3. Back Up Your Files.
   We do not have any recommended backup solution; we normally leave that one to the experts, but regardless of the 3rd party Backup solution:
   a. The third-party backup solution must be able to restore the entire data folder and retain the existing folder structure.There are three types of backup methods: Full, Incremental and Differential. E.g. Only the Full backup method is supported by SAGE 300 CRE.
   The third-party backup solution must be able to restore the entire data folder and retain the existing folder structure.
   b. There are three types of backup methods: Full, Incremental and Differential. E.g. Only the Full backup method is supported by SAGE 300 CRE.

Our team at Thrive are pretty cluey with security, and are always happy to help, and if it is beyond our skillset, we work with a variety of highly skilled IT companies around Australia that we can put you in touch with. 

If you feel that security is an area you could use a hand with, or if you just want to make sure you are doing all you can do to protect your business from malware, call Thrive today.