Toronto business security advisor denounces latest virus, offers tips for today's virus crisis.

Claudiu Popa, President of Toronto-based security firm Informatica Coporation Urges no-nonsense approach to the latest virus threats - Offers tips for managing through today's crisis.

(PRWEB) August 23, 2003 -- Claudiu Popa, President of Toronto-based security firm Informatica Coporation Urges no-nonsense approach to the latest virus threats - Offers tips for managing through today's crisis.

1. Give Blaster a break. It's a mostly harmless and buggy program that is only meant to showcase the biggest vulnerability Windows has ever seen. Instead, update your software and don't support the hype.

2. Immediately update your anti-virus programs for the "Welchia" (the "white hat") worm, a far more disruptive and damaging program designed by either an ignorant or a malicious individual.

3. Protect yourself against the Sobig.f worm. The most dangerous strain of this intelligent virus has exploded on the scene in the past 2 days and is infecting computers while masking its origin, opening backdoors into infected machines and executing arbitrary programs at specific times.

The Sobig.f worm is really the most serious threat here, because of its ability to compromise your privacy and run any software on your machine, says Claudiu Popa, business security advisor and president of Toronto-Based Informatica Corporation.

It emphasizes the need for both businesses and individuals to take a look at the way they manage their Internet access, email and data backups to avoid being affected and taking part in the unnecessary hype.

Quick tips for small businesses:

1. create internal policies for email use and data backup/recovery
2. keep people informed: communicate these policies to all staff
3. definitions are up to date
4. tweak firewall policies to control Internet and network traffic,
especially outgoing traffic.

Urgent note to system administrators: Configure your gateways to NOT send auto-replies for the SOBIG.F worm to reduce Internet traffic.

Claudiu Popa helps businesses understand and control security issues. A trusted advisor by Canadian organizations, Claudiu helps protect vital information assets through policies, awareness and good old-fashioned expertise. He can be reached at Claudiu@info-corp.com

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