Despite all that is known about them and the various counter-measures available, mass mailing viruses and Internet worms continue to disrupt businesses, causing system downtime, lost productivity, and continual patching.
The self-propagating and spoofing nature of the latest attacks makes them especially virulent and damaging. Existing product solutions have been proving largely ineffective in detecting and containing "day-zero" attacks. This term pertains to first-time attacks for which there may not yet be a solution.
In numerous instances, it is not an option to apply patches to desktops and servers, due to the fact that these machines are running business-critical applications that might not be compatible with the required patches, or patches are just not available.
Against this background, there has been growing support for a new subscription-based service, aimed at the SME market in SA, called DRS PROTECT. This managed solution, currently only available to clients of Internet Solutions or MTN Network Solutions, provides subscribers with Internet access based on a money-back-guarantee against virus or worm outbreaks.
Included in the offering is international and local bandwidth of the company`s choice, a managed firewall, content filtering and intrusion prevention, as well as comprehensive online ASP anti-virus software.
"We are so confident in the efficiency of our aggregated solution against malicious attacks that, in the unlikely event that a client suffers a virus or worm outbreak, all of the items included in the service - excluding Internet access - are provided for free for the following month," says DRS managing director, Andrew Brown.
Other advantages contained in DRS PROTECT range from upfront solution implementation and network cleanup, to online ASP Desktop Firewall for mobile users and "Business Aware Internet Access Policy".
Brown believes that, on their own, these added services offer significant benefit to the growing number of DRS PROTECT Service subscribers. "It is clear that local businesses just want risk-free Internet - they don`t want to be bogged down with the constant war against Internet threats," says Brown. "We have made it our agenda to stay on top of the latest threats and solutions and to carry the numerous behind-the-scenes tasks required to ensure ongoing Internet access without negative interference for our subscribers."
Share
Editorial contacts