HIDS or AntiVirus Systems

Posted by Winnie Melda on November 30th, 2018

Introduction

Computer viruses are posing a considerable issue to users of personal computers. Although the recent emergence of macro viruses as an issue of concern for many organizations and individuals may increase the awareness of viruses, most people do not have an adequate understanding of common countermeasures for these viruses. Although people claim that viruses are common for the IBM platforms and chief compatibles, the users of other platforms such as Macintosh should never be complacent; there are viruses for many platforms. Organizations should continually devise ways of addressing these problems in an effective way in their best way possible. The paper addresses the way to go in protecting against viruses in an organization, the causes of the high virus outbreaks, and how to address the trend.

How can one protect against virus outbreaks in an organization?

Addressing this problem effectively requires that employees be taught not to open email messages from unknown sources or running files they receive through attachments unless they are fully aware of what they contain and their sender.  Organizations should have current versions of antivirus programs running on their computers so as to effectively address any new viruses (Slade, 1996).  Because there are new viruses coming up each and every day, they are in turn posing a threat to an organization’s computer systems.  It is, therefore, mandatory that an organization updates all the company antivirus software at least once a week, although the best duration is updated them on a daily basis.  Organizations should have virus checker programs for scanning all the CDs and floppy disks before they can use them for transferring data (Cohen, 1984). They should also restrict the use of personal devices such as CDs and disks on the company PCs.

The other security requirements for an organization so as to protect themselves against viruses are to secure personal data using a personal firewall.  That is because every time that a computer is online, it is susceptible to the attack by viruses irrespective of the type of internet connection one has.  There should also be restrictions on the software downloaded by the employees and their installation on the company computers.  An organization should also offer audit trails for all its device usage as well as the execution attempts.  There should be the identification of organization security loopholes to protect the sensitive information via comprehensive auditing capabilities.

What are the common causes of these problems?

Computer virus incidents are increasing day by day according to FBI study.  Nowadays the attacks by viruses take place on user groups for reasons chief among them being the financial motive. Many of the operating systems used today do pose security vulnerabilities, thus permitting attackers into the information system for individuals or organizations (Slade, 1996).  Viruses tend to utilize the vulnerabilities in the operating systems as well as in the application software so as to gain unauthorized access and damage.  The operating systems having a smaller number of users such as Linux do not have much vulnerability as compared to the ones used by many people such as Windows operating system (Scott, 2003). Also, when users are increasingly adopting broadband communication technologies at home, the result is the rapid growth of incidences of computer viruses that target small businesses and home users.

Although the viruses writers wrote the majority of the older viruses with low-level programming languages that are difficult to use today, the latest computer viruses have a design using high-level programming languages and tools.  These new high-level computer viruses are hard to analyze as optimizing compilers always obscure their code logics that in turn obscures the viruses (Szor, 2005).  These newer viruses use sophisticated techniques to spread, hence making it hard to identify them. The homogeneity of today’s computing hardware, application software, operating systems or communications platforms is becoming the single and largest enabler for the trend in computer viruses.  For instance, more than 90 percent of computers around the world run Microsoft Windows OS or Intel-based hardware (Rotich, 2014).

How would use address this troublesome trend?

• Organizations and individuals should employ scheduled and updated virus scan software on PCs at least in a week.
• Organizations should permit only approved software to run on their computer and ensure that there is no running of unaccepted programs.
• Companies should practice minimum privileges to their users in such a way that they can only access what they need to perform their daily duties.
• Subscription to an alert service that alerts you whenever it detects new viruses and provides their identities to the antivirus software to deter them.
• There should be the usage of intrusion detection systems and firewalls to help in admitting only the authorized data to the system.
• There should be occasional running of vulnerability scanners from the inside as well as the outside of the network so as to identify the PCs that are vulnerable to attacks and patch them as appropriate.

Conclusion

Although all the operating systems include inbuilt protective mechanisms for keeping viruses away, they depend on the user and how the user manages to keep away the exposure of the PC to viruses.  Antivirus software is essential as they help fill the gap in a system’s defenses that expose them to a virus.  Since viruses have negative effects on a corporate network and systems, companies should endeavor to protect their systems from viruses, they should carry out vulnerability scans on their machines and ensure that all employees receive training on how to be safe from viruses.

References

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Cohen,C. (1984). Computer Viruses - Theory and Experiments, Computer Security: A Global Challenge, Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (North-Holland). Pp. 143-158.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development., & SourceOECD (Online service). (2009). Computer viruses and other malicious software: A threat to the Internet economy. Paris: OECD.

Rotich, E., Kimutai, M., Daniel, S. & Siele, L. (2014). Trends in Computer Viruses: A Review. Global Journal of Engineering, Design & Technology, 3(3), 9-11.

Slade, R. (1996). Guide to Computer Viruses: How to avoid them, how to get rid of them, and how to get help. New York, NY: Springer New York.

Szor, P. (2005). TheArt ofComputerVirusResearchandDefense.Addison-Wesley, 2005.

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Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in college research papers if you need a similar paper you can place your order for order research paper.