Viruses are bad… and there are lots of them. Don’t believe it? A simple peek at the Global Virus Watch should set you straight. This virus-ubiquity has stimulated network fortification at all levels while increasing predator competition for the remaining unprotected innocents. Doggone it, infecting networks is becoming a tough way to make a living. How bad is it?

The virus biz is so bad, the percentage of malmail harbouring viruses actually dropped in July.

Before you break out the champagne, note that, while viruses dropped, phishing messages surged 45% to 63%. The targets are shifting, too.

Traditionally, the lion’s share of phishing messages were broadcast to huge prospect-pools, like eBay, PayPal, Wells Fargo, etc. But as these big pools get overphished, anglers cast for stiller waters. The idea: Phish who haven’t been hooked, aren’t yet wary.

Thus, phishers are increasingly casting their nets over the likes of South Africa’s Standard Bank and the relatively small Navy Federal Credit Union (2.5 million souls) are becoming ever more common.

So what’s a savvy email administrator to do… beyond catching already known viruses and phishing attacks?

Set your network content filters to:

  • Strip or kill email containing phishing tricks;
  • Disable embedded vbscripts and Javascripts, and;
  • Mangle potentially dangerous HTML links, forms, etc.

And don’t plan on getting any sleep soon. Your enemy never sleeps. Neither should you.

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