Malware is any type of malicious software that can change the functionality of a machine. Malware is believed to be easy to deploy remotely and is difficult to trace its source, which has greatly increased the black market of malware providers (BITS, 2011). Before developing strategies and practices to mitigate the effects of malware, it is important to understand the different types of malware and their behaviors that can impact an organization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Fighting malware should be a collective approach rather than an individual or group responsibility. Within an organization, proper analysis and risk assessment should be carried out to ensure that there are no loopholes in how the company deals with malware issues. MSDN Library (2006) listed an excellent strategic approach that provides guidance for identifying, prioritizing, controlling, and mitigating such malware attacks. Based on this, it is important to evaluate risk and prioritize it based on the business, conduct decision support to periodically evaluate the controls put in place, implement controls on a regular basis based on advancements in the malware industry, staying updated on trends in this dark market and adopting effective methods to measure the risk management process implemented within a company so that the company can carry out analysis at various levels to mitigate malware risks. Keep your browser plug-ins updated by installing patches as and when available from vendors. Block P2P use by enforcing a no P2P (peer to peer) policy so that malware cannot be shared via P2P. company networks. Disable the Windows autoplay option as external drives and USB cards can be a primary source of malware transfer into machines. Enable advanced security in Adobe Reader that can protect your machine from any malicious attacks via PDF. Limit the use of network mapped drives as there is a high probability that malware attacks will be transferred through such mapped drives. These units may be closed unless it is an absolute requirement of the company. Reviewing the effectiveness of email security is important since emails and URLs are the very common media type for malware attacks (Musthaler, 2011). Efforts must be made to develop a mitigation strategy in the organization to reduce, if not completely avoid, malware attacks not only with a reactive approach but also proactively to be prepared and remain protected from such malicious software attacks on an organization. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a customized paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay At a high level, the way to minimize possible ways of attack is to ensure that all patches are installed on time. Limit the number of services running on a system which in turn reduces the possibility of attacks Control and limit publicly available data about the system and organization (Conklin et.al, 2016).
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