“It’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” believes Marcie Terman, Business Development at DataFort. “After a virus attack, it’s natural for companies, especially SMEs, to assess their data’s integrity. Loading an unchecked disc or tape onto a server can introduce a virus back onto the network, causing expensive downtime and additional work for IT staff or third party consultants.”

Virus experts estimated that the Mydoom.A and B viruses accounted for 30% of all worldwide e-mail traffic at the height of the infection. Microsoft placed a $250,000 bounty on the creator’s head while just one e-security firm reported stopping 8.1 million copies of the virus since it was unleashed on Monday 26th January 2004.

“Any company that relies on its data for survival must ensure they run an up to date virus checker on their backups before they copy files back onto the system,” adds Terman. “Some backup systems automatically reinstall data which can bypass or delay virus checking procedures allowing re-infection to occur. The message is, if you’ve caught Mydoom or any other virus, don’t put anything back onto your system until you have proper virus checking solutions in place.”

With virus attacks becoming more and more frequent, IT activities such as archiving, storage and backup need to be factored into the virus checking and firewall process. With the flexibility, convenience and competitive pricing of managed off-site backup services, Terman argues that SMEs should ditch the tape drive and CD-burner and look at managed solutions.

“Off site solutions allow multiple copies of data to be stored in one convenient location. If an undocumented virus infects locally held data, the client can restore a slightly earlier version. While they will lose the newest information, they will not lose all information from a critical file. ” concludes Terman. “This protection, added to the flexibility of purchasing data as you need it and the removal of human error and intervention from the backup process, is a compelling argument for moving away from local physical backup solutions.”

Although arriving in e-mail form primarily, Mydoom spreads rapidly especially if the infected computer is connected to a peer-two-peer file-sharing network such as Kazaa. It can also create a ‘backdoor’ on machines allowing hackers access to vital information.