Viruses and Legal Liability

by Matt Logan

   Recently, while doing research on a related issue I discovered some rather frightening concepts concerning computer viruses and legal liability. Apparently if a computer or individual within your business spreads a virus onto the machines of another organization, your business could be liable for damages. This is a rather frightening prospect considering damages from such an event could be catastrophic for businesses lacking solid backup protection. How could one begin to quantify the replacement cost of decades worth of business data?

   The obvious answer is to attempt to put redundant systems in place for anti-virus. In essence the prescription would be for one AV system on the computers and another AV system at the internet gateway. The gateway system would serve to help prevent the bad guys from penetrating to the machines to begin with and also help contain them if an outbreak occurs. Because the gateway can only govern itself, a separate system must exist on the individual machines as well to prevent the introduction of viruses from the internal network, and serve as  redundant protection for things missed by the gateway device.

   With the help of the advanced Calyptix Access Enforcer firewall we no longer have to rely on a single layer of “internet bad guy protection”. The devices are affordable and serve other neat functions like email you reports of which websites your employees are visiting. See our page on the Calyptix Access Enforcer firewall for more information on this breakthrough device.