Describe the best practice to employ to mitigate malware effects on a machine.  Directions:Students are required to post one original response to the discussion questions each week, as well as a res

The advent of modern technologies has helped us make leaps and bounds in various sectors such as businesses, institutions, governments and even individuals. However, these technologies that include computers, networks and servers frequently come under attack by harmful software called malware. We hear malware attacks happening at different organizations almost every other day. The attackers use malware to hack into the system of an organization and obtain sensitive information for their own gain. Hence, organizations have started to take necessary action against the malware attacks and have started to employ different ways to mitigate malware effects on their machines.

Most of malwares attacks happens through the email so that is the first place to apply mitigating measures. User should check the address of the email senders and should not open it if they feel it is suspicious (CNA, 2017). Even if the email is opened, the users should not click on links or attachments. This type of training should be given to the employees along with the different types of malware attacks, how they occur and how to avoid them.

Now-a-days there are several Anti-virus software that even function to scan email attachments. So anti-virus software should be installed. Anti-virus scan for malicious software that are already there in the system as well and can help get rid of them. They also scan for potential threats from websites as well. Companies can also install endpoint security product to make the IT infrastructures more secure (CNA, 2017). The companies also need to keep the security software updated by downloading patches and updates from time to time (CNA, 2017).

Other approaches to mitigating malware effects are by maintaining application and file visibility. Visibility helps keeps tracks of file that are flowing in and out of the system so that the potential malicious files can be mapped (Chee, 2014). Forensic analysis tools can also be used in parallel to application visibility to assist in determining the spread of malware. Another way of mitigating malware is through application whitelisting to allow only authorized software to run in the system (Chee, 2014). Sandboxing is another way of detecting malicious files. Unknown files can be sent to the cloud to run in virtual environment and check for the contents in the file (Chee, 2014). Cloud based web security can also be used by organizations which are based on the cloud. Cloud service providers can scan the incoming traffic before sending it to the user. These are some of the ways to mitigate malware effects on a machine.

References

Chee, R. (2014, October 7). Malware Mitigation Strategies. Retrieved from https://ironbow.com/techsource/malware-mitigation-strategies/