Tech Tips: Computer Virus Protection

Q: Dear IT Guy, a few weeks ago my firm installed a home firewall appliance for a VPN connection into my work’s domain. The computer guy that helped get it installed mentioned that the firewall had a virus scanning option but he was unfamiliar with it. Do you know if the virus scanner on the firewall is something I should look into?

A: Dear reader, the firewall virus scanning option is a great feature to have running. This is especially true if you have more than one PC running on your home network behind the firewall. Many of the firewall manufacturers offer virus signature file updating service and having this run would make a good supplement to your locally loaded virus software.

Q: IT Guy, we recently install a new virus-scanning suite from Trend Micro and we are fairly comfortable with the three layers of virus scanning on our network. Is there any other suggestions you would have to further protect us from virus infection?

A: Dear reader, one area of virus protection that frequently gets overlooked is with network routers and switches. This is especially true as of late with certain Cisco products. In addition to the virus protection you have installed on your servers and nodes, it is very important that you keep you router and switch IOS’s up to date. This will help prevent any virus infection on your networking backbone.