Healthcare ViewPoint

Viruses and Phishing are not good for Business.

By: Peter Philipp. Director TechOnline
Aug 30, 2006

Keeping our computers safe and secure is now a daily challenge for most small businesses – particularly for professional advice practices such as lawyers, accountants and doctors.Not only do we have to worry about increasing viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, spam, pop-ups etc., we need to be doubly concerned about the exponential increase in cyber crime committed by organized criminals – many from Eastern Europe and Russia.And all of this in the context of increasing compliance, corporate governance and regulatory demands.

• Viruses - up by 10,000 per year
• "Phishing” emails for personal/financial details – up 366% last year
• Spyware – equal no. 1 problem in 2005/06 – up 300% in 2005
• On-line banking/transaction fraud – around $100 million/year in Australia
• More than 30% of small business back-up and disaster recovery regimes – fail!Most don’t do regular backups and most don’t backup what they really need!
• Spam is now 75%-80% of all emails – a huge productivity cost to business
• Most small businesses don’t run monthly Windows updates – leaving them vulnerable to malicious attacks
• Cyber crime rising exponentially – up 67% last year.

Big businesses have their IT departments to protect their computers and business from malicious attacks.Small businesses, on the other hand, are generally wide open to such attacks as they have little in the way of protection and the business owner is often the IT department (albeit without any formal qualifications for the role.).This is the reason why small businesses are 3 times more likely to suffer an attack than big business.

Simply by using their computers for normal activities such as sending emails, ordering goods and paying bills, researching products on the Internet, etc. small businesses are putting their business at risk.Yet, small businesses mostly operate with a “head in the sand” mentality and the belief that it won’t happen to them.And when they are hit, they call on friends and relatives for help - anyone who knows a little more about computers than they.

Who would you turn to for quality accounting advice if you have an accounting related problem - a well-meaning friend or a “qualified” accountant?

Adopting the reactive approach of “wait ‘til it breaks and hope I can fix it and my business not suffer” is yesterday’s solution to yesterday’s problems.

And if all you have in place is anti-virus software, possibly a hardware firewall and the occasional backup – then you are putting your business at risk as these defences are completely inadequate in today’s cyber world.They will not stop you from:

• Being infected by spyware by simply visiting a website, even though you did not “click” on anything
• Having your personal details, including bank account and credit card details, stolen
• Having critical business information and files deleted or lost
• Becoming infected with pop-ups and other malicious software

Today, you need a “proactive approach to prevent problems” from occurring in the first place.Anything less, is a half-baked approach to computer security and the security and viability of your business.

This is what big businesses do – and now small businesses can benefit from a cost-effective and proactive solution to their daily computer management and support needs.A solution that leverages the latest in remote management and automated delivery, and:

• meets their daily security and maintenance needs,
• provides a daily, automated and offsite backup, and
• delivers timely technical advice and problem resolution.

Rather than ineffectively wasting your time trying to manage your computer needs, you can leave this to the experts – freeing up many hours (often more than 15 a month according to Microsoft) to grow your business.

“TechOnline is my IT department.I no longer have computer problems because their daily automatic service protects my computers and data – just like a big business.It’s cost-effective and I have already recommended it to a number of other businesses – which have since become TechOnline customers.”

Susie Constable – Certified Practicing Accountant

The bottom line for small business:computer risks are real and increasing at a rate that is out of control.Avoiding these risks is impossible and, if the worst happens, you could be out of business.

The time to act is now, to secure your computers and your business.

Peter Philipp – Director, TechOnline

TechOnline is the first to offer small businesses a daily, proactive and complete computer management and support service that focuses on “preventing problems”.TechOnline’s services are delivered for a fixed monthly fee.The daily service covers security and maintenance regime, offsite backups, disaster recovery plus a helpdesk for technical advice and problem resolution and support. This service is offered Australia-wide. Visit us at www.techonline.com.au or telephone 03 - 9886 9630.