Virus Protection and Internet Security

Virus Protection

Virus protection is defined as the protection against unwanted, malicious or destructive automated computer files. Virus protection also encompasses SPAM, Virus code, Trojans, and worms.

(See a World-Wide Virus Map to visualize the extent of the problem).

Virus protection is the fastest growing and the number one threat for cyber attacks today. More money, time and loss of productivity have been attributed to viruses than any other cyber attack. Viruses are just starting to become mainstream. This is just the beginning, more and more vicious viruses are being developed as we read this section. Choosing Virus Protection

Virus Protection Evolution

1980's-1992	Floppy disks were the main source for virus spreading.
1993	Email was becoming very popular and thus started spreading viruses (I Love you, Melissa, etc) today still about 84% of all viruses are spread via email.
1998	WWW was becoming extremely popular and viruses are now being spread through File Transfer (FTP) and Hyper Text Transportation Protocol (HTTP) (More and more viruses will start to use this method for distribution i.e. NIMDA)
2003+	HTTP will gain on EMAIL and more viruses will be more destructive than we have seen in the past.

Virus Protection - Levels of Security

Level 1 -	Desktop Virus Protection - This is the earliest form of Virus Protection. This level of protection was the only real defense for quite some time.
Level 2 -	Server Virus Protection - This was developed in 1996. This level of protection is vital to any server on the network.
Level 3 -	Email Virus Protection - This was developed in 1998. This level of virus protection was developed to combat the increasing number of email viruses that plague us daily.
Level 3a-	SPAM Filter- SPAM is unsolicited (junk) email. A SPAM filter is becoming increasing necessary as the number of SPAM increase dramatically.
Level 4 -	Gateway Virus Protection - This was developed in 1996 but perfected in 1998. The entire philosophy of Enterprise virus protection was changed due to this new network architecture design.

Updates are as crucial as the level of protection that you choose. Updates are file patterns of know viruses, worms, Trojans and SPAM. The Virus protection is only as good as it last pattern update. If the pattern has not been found, discovered and fixed then the network is vulnerable from this type of attack.

On-going management of this environment is crucial for success. The need for trained and skilled professional looking after these systems is critical. If these systems are not running and updated properly they will cause you as much trouble as the viruses that you are protecting against. Managed Enterprise Virus Protection

Level	Vendor-Product	Updates	Management	Overall Virus Protection	Overall with MSS 3 tier management
1	Macafee Desktop	3	3.5	3.25	N/A
1	Nortons Antivirus	2.75	3	2.8	N/A
1	TrendMicro OfficeScan	7.5	7.5	7.5	9.5
2	Norton Corportate edition	2.75	4	3.3	N/A
2	Macafee Corporate	3	4	3.5	N/A
2	Trend Micro Server Protect	7.5	7.5	7.5	9.5
3	Norton Corporate Edition	2.75	4	3.3	N/A
3	Macafee Corporate	3	4	3.5	N/A
3	Trend Micro Scan Manager	7.5	8.5	8	10
3a	Trend Micro eManager (SPAM)	7	8.5	7.75	9.5
4	Trend Micro InterScan VIRUS WALL	7.5	9	8.25	10

Each Virus Protection product has it own risk and benefits. FrontLine's expertise will match the risks/benefits that your company desires and needs. Our focus will be to present the technical risks/benefits so that you can make the best business decision without being the experts in this field or this technology. We remove the doubt of technical expertise so that intelligent business decision can be made at the correct level of management.

Choosing Virus Protection
This decision can have a long-lasting impact on your network today and in the foreseeable future.

To choose the correct Virus Protection is a very difficult thing to accomplish. Many factors have to be taken into consideration. FrontLine has many years of experience in these decisions and understand the factors that are involved. If all factors are not considered the decision could have very negative impact now and in the future.

Some factors to consider: (this is not an exhaustive list - only a sample)

Which Firewall is the company running
Level of security needed
Budget
Level of Reliability
Level of Scalability
On-going Management of security solution
Consistency of the network
The need to grow/expand
Business cycle of company purchasing Virus Protection
LAN architecture
WAN architecture
Remote users
Remote offices
Applications in use
Ease of deployment
Technical ability of administrators
Need to compliance to outside agencies.
Sensitivity of data
Targeted or non-targeted environment
WWW structure
Email structure
Database structure
Current and future security requirements.
Reliability and uptime necessity

Virus protection products that are supported by FrontLine Internet Security.

Virus Protection Products

Managed Enterprise Virus Protection

Contact FrontLine for an evaluation of your current Virus Protection strategy.