Unauthorized network use is on the rise in the small to medium business workplace.  Employees are beginning to exploit network resources such as non work-related web surfing and personal email reading while at work.  Lets be quite honest here: Nobody minds a bit of casual surfing or email if the employee(s) perform well from day to day, but that's not the main issue.

The main issue is unauthorized personal surfing and email reading leads to many of the following unwanted items that cause the average five to ten person business $10,000 or more a year in damages and lost work hours:

	Spam emails and unsocial zed emails.
	Viruses and Trojans
	Spyware and Adware

One such company that cannot be named due to the new privacy act that was effective in Canada from January 1st, 2004, had lost over an estimated $15,000 in revenue due to these three issues.  For simplicity purposes, we will refer to this company as "Company X".

Company X's Case Study

"Company X" did not realize that there was any problems with their networks.  They went on with their day to day business for months without noticing even a hic-up from their computer networks.  One day a client called and asked "Company X" why the delivery did not arrive as planned over two weeks ago.  "X" did not understand that there was a problem because they had never received a notification that the deal was closed and they were supposed to go ahead as planned.  Fortunately the client was understanding and believed "Company X" when they said the closure email must of not been received; But "Company X"'s client also had a client that they were serving that was not so understanding, and the contract was cancelled even before it began.

Over time, "X" received more calls such as this one, and began to realize that they were losing emails at some point during their transfer.  This is when Efficient Digital Solutions was called to troubleshoot the problem.

Enter Efficient Digital Solutions

After careful examination of the network systems and client computers, EDS found several security flaws in "X"'s network.  Programs called "hijackers" and "spyware" were running on 70% of the computers, sending vital, private information back to unproductive corporations with no benefit or authorization of "Company X".  Also contained on the network were various viruses and backdoors (called Trojan Horses) that were rerouting emails and causing havoc without anyone realizing for over one month time.  How long they could of been there is anyone's best guess.  Even more disturbing, how long they could of remained there if such incidents did not arise.

The Source

So How Did These "Hijackers" and "Spyware" Programs Get There in the First Place?  They were secretly installed on the employees' computers, probably without the employees even knowing of the abusive nature of the programs.  After installed, the programs have free rein to do whatever they wish.

Antivirus software will not find "Hijackers" or "Spyware".  And even if certain software did find these programs, most of the "Hijackers" require difficult and manual removal by a trained and certified computer technician.

Prevention is the Key

How do you defend against these potentially very dangerous counter-productive programs that act like viruses but cannot be scanned by conventional virus scanning software?  There are various types of spy ware detectors out on the market today, but they will only detect approximately 65% of the threats currently residing on your computer.  They will also not stop the threats from entering your network.  They can only detect them after they have been installed and running.

EDS has developed strategies to protect businesses from these potentially dangerous "Hijackers" and "Spyware".  The first step involves a light training sessions to properly educate the employees of a company of what they can do to stop the problem at the source.  The second step involves locking down system resources and delegating security measures to stop these threats from entering back into the business's computer networks.  The third step involves developing a plan customized for a specific business that will automatically scan, detect, and delete these threats.

APDD: The Three Phases Applied by EDS:

To learn more on how Efficient Digital Solutions can protect your company from potentially damaging threats such as "Spyware" and "Hijackers", please contact us at (905) 940-1441 or email via inquiries@edsolutions.ca.

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