Tuesday 29 September 2009
Is There a Ghost (or a Worm) in your machine? Asks Stuart Wilkin
Question …. Would you rather have swine flu or a Conficker worm? And you only have ten seconds to answer.
I bet you said swine flu. And that’s not to underestimate the miserable and debilitating virus that hit the headlines, curiously around the same time as the MPs expenses farce in early summer. Swine flu, hippopotamus flu or any kind of flu is bad news. But for those of us who aren’t in the IT crowd the Conficker worm somehow sounds more menacing. We’re not absolutely sure what the consequences of having one would be. But we don’t particularly want to find out.
The worm, first detected in November last year, spreads rapidly to computers through a flaw in the Windows operating system. And while things seemed to go a little quiet over the summer (a bit like swine flu) the brightest minds in technology are facing up to defeat by the Conficker worm which has infected more than 5 million computers already.
At the moment, the worm is in waiting, but once the hackers issue instructions it could turn quite vicious in an instant.
Now Microsoft has offered a $US250,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the individuals behind the virus.
With any potential threat to your IT security the key is to know where your weak points are. And social media sites, with unregulated content, and in some offices unregulated usage are the latest targets. A worm can crack into a Facebook account and send a message to anyone on the user’s friends list.
And it's a message a colleague would be certain to open since it comes from a trusted friend – and hey ho – they’re infected, with the risk that everything they do from hereon will show up on the hacker’s computer.
If you do get an infection - the potential downtime, the hassle factor and real risk of fraud will likely be more of an interruption to your business than a bout of flu.
But even now too few people have top-notch, up-to-date security software. IT experts are advising clients to undertake 360 degree unified threat management, incorporating a managed web filtering service. If you watertight the web browsing in your office at every entry point you can start to feel more secure.
The tried and tested housekeeping practices like backing up your hard drives and only opening attachments from known sources still hold true. But as technology advances so do the worms and you now at least need someone to tell you if you click on a ‘bad website’.
Unless you operate a 360 degree protection policy you are pretty much an open door to infection. And prevention is almost always better than the cure.
Put it this way. Working in a multi station office with a bog standard anti virus system is rather like an eighty year old warding off flu with a Werther’s Original. It might work but why take the chance?
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Thursday 24 September 2009
When cash is tight slashing your IT budget is a false economy, writes Stuart Wilkin
If you’re old enough to remember the last recession in 1991, you’ll also remember that it was relatively gentle. Comparisons are difficult; after all it was an entirely different time. The Spice Girls were still at school (apart from the ginger one) and the nearest thing to reality TV was the Generation Game.
In the business world there was no banking sector meltdown, no iconic images of bankers carrying the contents of their desks out of the London office of the doomed Lehmans Brothers bank, and at that time Alastair Darling’s hair probably matched his eyebrows.
We all just cut our cloth and carried on.
In the nineties finance directors knew where to squeeze when times were hard – training, marketing and IT. Ten years ago IT still wasn’t seen as an essential business tool. But forward thinking businesses now recognise that protecting their IT budget and building a strong infrastructure will help to drive efficiencies in all other areas of the operation.
Cutting your budget on IT now and then playing catch up when things improve just won’t work. Research in the US found that twenty five per cent of companies said they would put up with lower network performance, because budget restrictions slowed investment in IT systems and support. The study also showed that these were the same businesses that typically underperformed compared to their peers.
IT investment should be driven by sound business reasons that can justify the expense, and be targeted at ways of improving efficiency.
Many businesses have legacy infrastructures and new technology tends to be smaller and has less need for cooling. With energy costs increasing as they have, efficiency in this area merits attention.
And a managed IP service that enables telephones and PCs to be switched off when not in use will make savings overnight.
Poor IT can result in reduced productivity, wasteful expense and risk of fraud.
But if you want The Birdie Song to be on the radio, Graham Taylor to be the England Football Manager and a sidecar to carry your mobile phone then cutting your IT budget is for you.
And don’t forget training and marketing while you’re at it.
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