Spyware and Adware: How to Prevent the Malware

According to InfoWorld, 2015 saw the creation of 27 percent of all malware variants. Ever. The adware/spyware program type makes up about 12.5 percent of malware — and, in much the same way that we can attribute the emergence of superbugs to the use of antibiotics, we can attribute the emergence of the newest variant to our use of increasingly adept antivirus programs. So what can you possibly do to prevent these programs from taking your business on a very annoying and harmful ride?

Discovering How to Prevent Spyware and Adware in 2016

First, we suggest finding the right resources. If you want to avoid vendor-centric jargon and get some real information about solutions, check out a non-affiliated organization like NIST that can comment on best practices for spyware and adware prevention without an agenda. It's also a good idea to consult other businesses who have similar security postures to your own and may have already determined their go-to solution. Other avenues for information include your local chamber of commerce events.

Aside from outreach, what else can you add to your malware-prevention mix? Because it can slow you down, lower productivity and act as a gateway mechanism for malware and ransomware that can damage machines or steal information, you must have a piece of protection software in place. We realize this recommendation doesn't solve for zerodays, but nothing aside from quick reaction time for incident response ever can.

So you need protection software on every machine — a firewall to prevent your users from going to sites where they might pick up spyware or adware. All employees need a little protection from themselves.

Another excellent prevention measure is an Acceptable Use policy. Ask your employees to commit to not downloading any software. And as an added measure of protection (because commitments don't always hold up), install a real-time web filter. That's a must. You've got to have something monitoring traffic to and from every machine and completing tasks like ad blocking. (Not only are ads annoying, but they can also easily direct you to sites that contain malicious code.)

Prevent spyware and adware by installing a real-time web filter. Click to tweet 

Small Investments, Big Payoff

Preventing spyware and adware is a good business bet, but sometimes the investment can be a bit prohibitive. In the interest of budget, consider starting your war on these malware types by implementing stricter network policies. Think about which permissions your users have on their machines and which they actually need. Use the tools you already have to tighten up security on your network. And find network security software you can manage centrally, so you don't need to go machine to machine to implement changes to rights and permissions. Starting there (and with the resources we mentioned at the beginning!) should get you where you want to go: toward an advanced security posture and higher productivity.