This is what happens when you have no protection on your computer. So many people think they are OK to run their systems with no anti-virus, but the truth is, if you have not been infected, it’s just pure fluke! This particular customer could not run any programs on the laptop because the viruses were using 100% of the CPU and LAN to spread itself. Only by going in to safe mode could we override the systems they virus had installed.
On average between 5 to 10 viruses a day are unleashed on to the world wide web, on top of that we have new malware scripts being detected by companies like Kaspersky Labs every few hours.
If you are online, even with some low quality protection like AVG, Panda etc, the chances are you WILL get infected. Viruses, Malware, Cryptoware and other strings all do different kinds of damage to your system, some can be devastating and you could lose all your work, photographs and personal data. Cryptoware will encrypt all your Excel & Word documents, the only way to recover the files is to pay criminals the fee, usually around £300, but then you have no guarantee they will send you the key, or that will not be infected again the next day. Normal viruses can spread through your network infecting other local machines in your home/office, and read your emails and send themselves to ALL your contacts, making you responsible for all your friends getting viruses and the cost that involves in data loss, lost time and lost data.
Many years ago, when Windows XP was at the top of the OS’s we set up 5 computers and put them online, 2 with AV and 3 without. The 3 systems were all infected within 24 hours by a stealth virus that ran silently and tried to go through the network. We had isolated the PC’s from each other, so we know each one was infected online individually, and it was not a LAN attack. Nowadays systems are much better, and Windows 10 comes with basic security, it’s not good enough to trust it alone, but as a temporary measure it’s much better than previous free versions of protection. One of the biggest issues with it it is decides what to delete and does not ask, there are options to recover deleted files but then it deletes it again immediately which is infuriating. Free AV programs are ok for home users who do nit use the internet for email, banking etc, if all you do is browse standard websites you MAY be ok, but as soon as you want to use Facebook, Internet Banking, shopping online etc, then having high end protection is paramount for you protection, and if you’re a business then there is really NO excuse for not having professional protection in place, which protects your systems and prevents downtime and protects your customers data.
We ONLY see Kaspersky products, in our opinion it is simply the best solution on the market, for end users and businesses alike. For small businesses we advice Kaspersky Total Security, ideally this requires a central server (does not have to be server software, Windows 7 or 10 will do) for management and controlling the workstations efficiently.
Please get in touch if you think we can help you get protected, prevention is always better than cure, and in the case of losing all your data, this is totally true!
Have a look at the KSN Cyber Threat Tracker, it gives a global map of viruses around the world in real-time, it’s fascinating to watch 🙂
https://cybermap.kaspersky.com/
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