The topic of antivirus is on everyone’s lips. And not only at the start of 2020 with the coronavirus epidemic, but also more generally in the IT departments of companies. Are you looking for professional-grade antivirus software for your business? Above all, you will need a product with proven effectiveness. Often, this goes hand in hand with complex usability. How can you protect yourself effectively and simply against malware and other hackers?

For small businesses and the private sphere, a reliable antivirus and an effective firewall are usually sufficient. If, on the other hand, you run a medium-sized company or if you hold a position of responsibility in a company, you should in any case be concerned about the protection of the company against viruses by using professional tools.

Protecting your business against viruses: Requirements vary depending on the size of the business

SMEs with few employees as well as small family businesses generally do not have an IT department manager who manages digital issues. It is not uncommon for a technician to be commissioned to deal with computer security issues. It is therefore desirable that the antivirus protection tools that they have at their disposal offer a rapid and exhaustive overview of the state of the IT environment at a given time.

The employees are generally inexperienced in the most advanced computer techniques, so they need the data to be protected on computers and servers and to be represented in a clear and simple manner. If the software identifies a threat to the security of the computer, the employee can do nothing other than shutting down the infected PC and then calling an external expert for further investigation.

Protect your business from viruses with your own IT department

For a medium-sized company, things are a little different since in most cases you have at least one IT department made up of several employees, including at least one network security specialist. This performs overall network monitoring and detailed statistics on the company’s IT environment. In an emergency, they can also assess internet connections.

Ahelp desk is particularly useful for allowing different employees to report suspicious changes in their computers. The managers or digital troubleshootersare then responsible for tracking down the virus in question to restore network security.

Protect your business with antivirus software with powerful scanning tools

For this, you need an antivirus with legal and effective scanning tools. It will allow you to find the trace of the infection or even solve them. It all starts with the exhaustive analysis of the data of the different computers using appropriate software, capable of identifying, classifying and filtering suspicious data.

Due to the complexity of the subject and the specifications that differ from one company to another, there is not really a consensus in terms of antivirus. IT managers should keep in mind what to expect from antivirus software to protect all of the company’s computers from digital dangers.

Protecting your business against viruses: security managed locally or in the cloud?

Currently, many businesses rely on cloud-based virus protection. Mobile and local customer status reports are collected centrally through an online console. This can be continuously monitored and analyzed by an administrator without the administrator being bound to a specific location. The advantage of this solution is that you can employ experts from outside the company to ensure IT security, they will not have to come to your company every day.

Another advantage of IT security via a cloud is also that Tool Management is supported by the manufacturer of the antivirus software. So, you don’t have to worry about updating and maintaining your company’s antivirus. In addition, the services offered by the cloud protect you much more effectively against malware and intrusions than the local IT environment of your company.

Of course, you can opt for a local server solution at any time. In this case, you will usually need a Windows server – which incurs additional licensing fees – or a Linux server configuration sometimes. Via VPN, you have the option of assigning an external administrator to a local solution who will exercise centralized monitoring from a management console. The maintenance of the server must however be carried out inside the company. Most companies rely on Windows computers for their standard workstation infrastructure, although some companies opt for a Linux or MacOS distribution. Even if the danger of malware is not as present as with Windows, in these cases we also advise you to prefer a centralized standby system.

Protect your business from viruses – Also on mobile devices

As experts say, there is a tendency to underestimate the integration of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones in IT security. However, it seems that a large part of antivirus manufacturers are far from imagining what the IT environment of a midsize company looks like today. As a result, they mostly give up developing suitable mobile customers.

In fact, more and more mobile devices are used, especially in industry. Not only to allow different employees to store their business contacts in memory and organize their meeting schedules, but also because many projects are implemented directly using mobile devices. To effectively protect this data, we recommend that you take care when choosing your anti-virus package, and make sure the software solution also includes clients for mobile operating systems.

Do not wait any longer to protect your business effectively against ransomware, viruses and other cyber-attacks. Act today!