What is it about journalists that are always coming up with stories aimed at frightening the pants off of us small business owners. The latest threat courtesy of the Globe and Mail is targeted at all of you who are running your business from your home PC without any serious protection:
In the cyber underworld’s never-ending quest for weak spots, home computers are coming under increased attack as businesses tighten their defences, according to the latest Symantec Internet security threat report.
Now, I have a question, is this a valid story, or is it a PR story for Symantec aimed at selling more virus software? The answer is that it’s probably a little of both, but since we have a number of readers of this blog who are IT and networking professionals, perhaps we can hear from you on this one.
If you are like me, you probably do not want to take the risk either way. Even if they are only partially true, I think it is always worthwhile to take reasonable steps to protect your PC and your information. For me that means investing and updating my virus software and treading carefully on the web, for others it may mean buying a Mac 
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11:39 am
I think you’re right. This article has some truth to it but it’s also fear mongering. Botnets have existed for years and savvy users generally know how to avoid getting infected by trojans.
If this article had focused on attacks against servers and warned people of the risks of running a Website on a home computer, I think it would have been more helpful to small business owners.
2:19 pm
Well so far most all the notices they have released about the Mac was aimed at fear mongering since their claims held little truth.. so how much of that is the same on the PC’s?
3:43 pm
I think you need look no further than the virus statistics in a the last 24 hours from one anti-virus provider. A very reputable source reported that in the last 24 hours they’ve detected 198,483 new virus infections in North America. If you look at the last 7 days the number balloons to 1,085,946 in North America. Those numbers should alarm anyone and make them take computer security very seriously.