Rise of the Antivirus: Why?
We all fantasize about a world of technological utopia, a world free of viruses and worms and all other types of malwares. Alas, so far there is no chance of it remotely materializing, but one can dream!
So, how did it happen? When and why did we get so dependent on the antivirus programs that protected our computers and information from any malicious malware or virus attacks? ;
Elk Cloner in 1982 was the first virus that appeared on records. It was a Mac virus and now of course it has spawned a generation of viruses and worms that are constantly battling with us for control of our computers. The new information superhighway or the World Wide Web or the internet poses a serious threat of immense virus and malware attacks that can effectively destroy our systems and cause massive data leakages. Since 1982, there has been a remarkable rise in the number of malwares. In 1994, just twelve years after the first virus, a stupendous figure of 28,613 malwares were recorded.
We can blame standardization of technology as one of the culprits behind proliferation of malware and viruses. The volume of data used today is immense. They can be easily stored in soft copies, as binary files. However, this ease of use also becomes one of the basic reasons for a malware attack as the viruses and other such programs can destroy millions of dollars worth of data in one fell swoop.
Large macros used in the word processors also aide the breeding of viruses that often attack files disguised as something else (eg the Trojan worm).
When executable files are hidden within non-executable file, then that is also a signal of upcoming virus or malware onslaught.
Outlook Express and other email programs are also particularly vulnerable to a virus attack. These attack tend to be particularly vicious, even one single click made to view your files can infect your entire computer.
Broadband connections have led to a proliferation of more dangerous viruses than ever before. And one can’t really trust a freeware solution as well, because they might have a disguised virus hidden within them that can directly harm your computer, without really wasting any time. Not only that, they might even contain spyware or other malwares that might leave your computers especially vulnerable to this attack or maybe some other future onslaught.
Businesses don’t really excel at managing viruses. They usually have a dedicated IT team that takes care of such contingencies that disrupt the normal functioning of a business. These teams manage the software platform as well as antivirus platforms. These days there are too many hackers active in the world that can truly cripple your business by bringing the entire OS of your company to a standstill through some planned virus attack.
Therefore, it becomes very important for any and every organization to spend in a strong antivirus that will be the most suitable for their business and ensure data security as well as protection from malware. It should also be capable of downtime prevention, which is the time lost by an employee in making the usage of their system due to problems in OS of their systems. Time is money, and by preventing downtime, a strong antivirus also saves money that is lost as opportunity cost, cost of retrieving data (if lost) as well as cost of maintaining employees per day in the office.
