Cyber Essentials Part 4 – Malware Protection

This is the fourth in a five-part series covering the government backed Cyber Essentials scheme, which is designed to set a base standard for cyber security in organisations. It deals with five specific areas: –

• Firewalls
• Secure configuration
• User access control
• Malware protection
• Patch management

In part 3 I covered User Access Control. This time I cover Malware Protection.
Malware protection (antivirus software) is almost universally know about and widely implemented. The question is more how well is it implemented?
Is it standardised across all your devices?
Is it frequently updated?
Do you run regular scans on your systems?
How do you know is there is an infection on a PC?
If you don’t have centrally managed malware protection you probably don’t know the answer to the above questions as it would require that you manually check each of your computers. When you have a centrally managed system, you can see from the management console which devices, are up-to-date and which are not. It also allows you to set a standard configuration across all of those devices. So not all malware protection is equal.
A good malware protection system will include other elements like a software firewall (see part 1) and web content filtering to protect against dangerous and undesirable websites.
You also need to think about malware protection for your email system. Email is the easiest way for malware to be delivered into your organisation. An unsuspecting user clicks on that link to look at the UPS tracking information for the parcel they never ordered and before you know it you have an infected PC. With good email malware and SPAM protection the vast majority of these emails are eliminated before they get to the user, thus protecting your vital systems.
At Reach I.T. Management we include centrally managed and monitored malware protection as a standard part of our support packages. We also include email scanning systems in our Office 365 and Exchange on-line subscriptions. If a machine fails to update or finds an infection the system automatically creates a support ticket for us to investigate. We manage your malware protection for your total peace of mind.
If you want to discuss how we could help you with any of the above then please do call me on 01788 440024 or fill in the contact form on our website.
In the final part I will cover Patch Management