What is Managed Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware?

A Managed Antivirus service is an automated service that will ensure your antivirus is up-to-date, runs scans as scheduled and infections are detected, analyzed, neutralized and reported immediately.  This is a critical step to secure the server, systems, network & wireless access devices.

If an organization does not have a Managed Antivirus service, the operational efficiency of the organization can be significantly reduced due to downtime.  When a virus gets to a system, the infection can be so severe that it requires a complete re-install of the operating system, programs and restoration of the data (if backed up).  The time required for this can be up to several hours per system and much more time per server.  Furthermore, an organization could spend several thousands of dollars for the remediation and restoration of the data.   If the data was not being backed up, that is another (but bigger) issue to read about in our previous blog on backups.

In addition to prevention, a Managed Antivirus solution should always be part of any PCI and HIPAA compliance strategy.  One would find it difficult to meet guidelines in PCI and HIPAA without an up to date antivirus.

The value of a Managed Antivirus service should also be considered from an administration aspect.  A Managed Antivirus service offers a more cost-effective approach to an unmanaged service.  If the service is unmanaged, a technology administrator or an assigned office staff person must go to each computer to make sure updates happen daily, and confirm that they are running, and scanning daily.  Sometimes a person is out (sick/vacation) or there is not enough time in the day to complete this task.  When this happens, “update gaps” occur where updates are not applied, and scans ran.  Even though it may be a day, most of the virus strains and malware will attempt to disable your antivirus solution and the antivirus status needs to be monitored constantly.  If the antivirus is disabled or an update is not applied, a managed antivirus solution will send a live alert or notice to a help desk team to address the issue in real time.

A Managed Antivirus service (along with a Patch Management Solution) will go a long way in protecting your environment and providing peace of mind. Consider it as a data security guard that will constantly monitor your systems and provide an alert when a door or window is unlocked or open.  The risks of not having a managed antivirus solution far outweigh the costs to have it.  If you do not have a managed antivirus solution in place, call us to discuss how one can help your organization at 901-475-0275.