The shop’s mail servers were protected from spam and viruses by network appliances at the network’s edges. So the laptop user was never bothered to install local protection. Big mistake.

On the road, he clicked on the wrong attachment. When nothing visible happened, he realized he’d made a Big Mistake. He was lucky on two counts.

  1. He had a web browser open, and;
  2. He had the presence of mind to call his network administrator.

The admin stepped him through downloading and installing ZoneAlarm with Anti-Virus (which didn’t screw anything else up, which is all-to-rare for personal computer anti-virus software). Within minutes, they discovered and removed Bagle-AG. Lucky guy.

When bad things happen, users should immediately freeze. Don’t open or close anything. Call your team for step-by-step instructions. You should build multi-level protection. From network borders to desk… er, laptops.