5 Things You Should Expect From Business Antivirus

When protecting your business devices with antivirus software, there is arguably much more at stake than with your personal machines. At home, while your personal information is at stake, you probably only have a few devices to protect. In your business environment, you need something that will not only protect a single endpoint but also work to protect your entire network of computers, servers and devices in the office and in remote locations. Here are the specific qualities you should look for in business antivirus software.

1. Automatic Monitoring & Updates

There are a few practical reasons why business owners need antivirus software to update automatically. First, the more tasks that are automated, the less likely someone is to forget or neglect to do them. Second, most general employees do not have (and should not have) the administrative permissions to update software. Unless you want your IT team to manually update every single machine in your network, or give high-level access to every employee, automatic updates are a must.

2. USB Infection Prevention

Just like a biological virus that spreads through human contact, computer viruses can be spread through USB sticks (or flash drives). It may seem harmless enough to use these tools, but they rarely have any antivirus protection. That’s why your business antivirus needs to scan for infected USB drives. Even if a virus isn’t maliciously put onto a USB drive, it can pick up a virus from an infected machine and spread its harmful effects throughout the office faster than sneezing.

3. Endpoint Security Oversight

Each computer and device on your network is an endpoint. In consumer solutions, each endpoint in a network is managed separately as far as antivirus software is concerned. However, in business solutions, there should be an overall dashboard that a network administrator can view to see any security risks, update selected machines and view log entries. It should provide a centralized dashboard for your IT team to use.

4. Employee & Network Tracking

It might sound a little over the top to some, but tracking activity on your network – including employee activity – can help to identify any nefarious activity before they can affect your network. Just make sure that you let employees know exactly what is being tracked and how the information will be used. Simply letting your teams know they are being tracked can be a big deterrent to inside hacking jobs. It may feel like an invasion of privacy to some, but for many companies it is an operational and even compliance necessity.

5. Works With Your IT Capabilities

You need to collaborate with your IT team to pick the antivirus software that will work well for your entire organization. You want to make sure they have the skills to implement the program, in addition to managing it and monitoring the whole system. It should be something your IT division is comfortable with so the software will perform well even at peak network capacity.

Want more information about how to protect your business from security threats including malware, ransomware, Trojan viruses and phishing attempts? Contact Visual Edge IT to learn about our proven process to support your business from assessing your IT needs through managing and supporting your IT solutions.