Abstract The Business problem to be sold is how to prevent viruses from infection the networked computers, education the staff on what a virus is and why it is important to know what harm it can do to you network. How to prevent getting a virus, and why you should use encryption software when sending important data to others in your business. This will provide instie for the company and help them keep cost down as they will not have to keep hiring or paying for an IT technician to fix and repair their systems, and also why the use of encryption usage will keep their confidential information from getting in to the wrong hands or the hands of a competitor.
Company Background Wing Warehouse is a sport bar and grill, famous for their wings and such. It is not just a bar it is a family fun and dining area also. The company is growing quickly in the last month 2 new locations in the Ohio area have opened. At the 17 locations just in Ohio 7 of those are run by one single manager, in saying so he must you a main office and network and share files and such for easy access with the other stores. The total numbers of employees that use the computer networked systems are around 3,000. In saying this even managers do not have all the computer knowledge they need to run a business successfully and without having any computer issues. Recently they were affected by a huge computer virus that shut down 7 of the stores for two days. Being that this is a very popular place for family and fun it took a huge toll on the company costing them thousands of dollars in loss of profit. I myself drove there to educate them and fix and repair their problem to get the company back to their dining, fun, drinks and customer service.
Business problem Although when things are running well the business thrives and does a huge deal of business. The problem is that the employees are not educated in working with computers and not often enough do they pay attention to what they may be opening up via E-mail or other things they may be searching for, or downloading to the companies PC. This in it self as stated above can take a huge toll on the company and cause a massive loss in profit, also leaving employess out of work for days until and IT team has time to come and fix the problem and restore the network so that Wing Warehouse can open again for business. The impact of not know about viruses or encryption software can be vital not only to this business but to any business that is networking and sending confidential data from store to store. This is why it is crucial for everyone to understand what a virus is, how it can affect the business and why encryption software is and why it should be used.
High-level solutions In order to protect the company from any further issues as the one they just had, the correct encryption software and antivirus software needs to be installed and explained how to be used and executed by all employees that are using the network. Encryption software should also be installed and explained in grave detail how to be used and how to make it work best for the company so that any critical information is not getting in the hands of a competitor for use to better their business.
Approach
First determine what type of anti-virus and encryption software is the best match for the company. Once decided upon install the appropriate software and set aside a time where all employees whom will be using the software can attend a class to help them learn the software and allow them to ask any and all questions before leaving the meeting. It is imperative that everyone involved is on the same page, understands the importance and can use the programs freely without any interruptions or problems.
Wing Warehouse systems Before this incident had happened Wing Warehouse did not see the importance of encryption software, and did not do the research on what anti-virus software that they should implement in to their business. They used normal e-mail services such as yahoo mail, G-mail and so on to communicate freely. Also text messages on their phones were being used as well. They have no anti-virus software on their phones and as for sending emails with no encryption they were leaving themselves wide open to the problem they ended up having when the business had to close for a three day period due to a virus and hacker incident.
Details about Virus and encryption A computer virus is created when a programmer creates computer code that has the capability to replicate itself, hide, and watch for a certain event to occur, and/or deliver a destructive or prankish payload on a disk or in a computer program. Viruses can attach themselves to just about any type of file and are spread as infected files are used by other computers. Some viruses are relatively harmless, while others are very devastating. They can destroy files, software, program applications, and cause the loss of data. New computer viruses are constantly being created by malicious programmers. Because of this, it is vital to keep anti-virus software on computers up-to-date. Some anti-virus software programs allow users to set them to silently check for updates whenever users are connected to the Internet. Others remind users to periodically check for updates. Worms and Trojans are closely related to viruses. A worm makes copies of itself on a computer, rather than infecting other files like viruses. A Trojan is a program that secretly installs itself on a computer and opens a back door to the computer so that malicious attacks can be remotely controlled. The actual Trojan is usually not damaging at first, but it is usually accompanied by other damaging programs.
What Viruses can infect Viruses can enter computers in many ways. Once a virus has entered a system, it will generally hide until it is unknowingly run by the user. A virus will not act until it has been run or some pre-established condition has been met, such as a specific date. The effects of a virus may not be noticed for some time after it has infected a computer. “Viruses can infect several components of a computer's operating and file system including:
• “System Sectors/Boot Records - Viruses can infect the parts of the system that are used to run programs and perform functions such as start up and shut down.
• Files - Viruses can infect program files. These viruses stick to program files such as .com, .exe, .sys, etc. Some viruses hide in the memory of the computer at first, while others simply attack a specific software program, such as Microsoft Word.
• Companion Files - Viruses can create companion files that are a special type of file that adds files that run on the hard disk.
• Macros - Viruses can infect macro or data files.
• Disk Clusters - Viruses can infect files through the disk directory.
• Batch Files - Viruses can use batch files to infect a computer.
• Source Code - Viruses can be in additional code that is added to actual program source code.
• Visual Basic Worms - These worms use the Visual Basic programming language to control a computer and perform tasks.” (http://www.online.tusc.k12.al.us/tutorials/viruses/viruses.htm)
Why Virus protection As you can see from above a virus can seriously harm your PC and as an organization with net worked computers it can spread through every computer very fast and do a lot of damage to your organization. If you get a virus and your systems are down this could result in loss of profit, your organization not operating normally for as long as it takes to get your systems cleaned up and running again. Knowing this and knowing how it can harm you should make it clear that you need to have anit-virus software running on each and every PC that is networked in your organization. There are a lot of companies out there who claim to have the best software but doing your research and knowing what best suits your organization is key to you security. Avg anti-virus is a wonderful program that scans every e-mail, web page, document and anything else yourself or your employees will access in their daily activities. You can setup a schedule for your software to run at whatever designated time you would like and set it to every day. In doing this you can have the scan preformed before any employee shows up at work or as soon as the turn on their PC the anti-virus software will perform its scan. Here is a list from avg.com describing everything that this anti-virus software will do to protect you and your organization:
• “AVG Anti-Virus, AVG Anti-Spyware, AVG Protective Cloud Technology and AVG Community Protection Network.
• AVG's core layers of protection make sure you can’t receive or unintentionally spread even the toughest threats.
• AVG Cloud Technology, new for 2011, constantly carries out tests ‘in the cloud’ over the internet to identify the latest emerging threats. Once we have identified threats we develop solutions and then update AVG on your computer in near real-time.
• AVG Community Protection Network is new for 2011 and is like an online neighborhood watch, helping everyone in the online community to protect each other. Information about the latest threats is collected from customers who choose to participate in the product improvement program and shared with the community to make sure everyone receives the best possible protection.
• AVG Anti-Spyware protects you from spyware and adware – the same kind of malware that is often very difficult to remove, which is why we prevent it from getting to you in the first place.
• AVG's Firewall protects you from malicious attacks by examining communications on each network port. It recognizes all attempts to invade your system and blocks them immediately, keeping both you and your private information safe.
• AVG Identity Protection is the outer layer of security, keeping your personal information safe by shielding your passwords, credit card numbers, and other digital valuables from prying eyes. AVG Identity Protection uses the latest behavioral technologies to identify software that behaves strangely and stop it before it can do any damage.”(Avg.com)

Encryption

Now that you know how to keep your data and PC’s safe you should also know how to encrypt your files when sending data so that in the case that the file or data being sent is intercepted it would be hard for the hacker to understand or be able to read the file. First allow me to explain what encryption is. Encryption is the conversion of data into a form, called a cipher text that cannot be easily understood by unauthorized people. Decryption is the process of converting encrypted data back into its original form, so it can be understood. The use of encryption/decryption is as old as the art of communication. In wartime, a cipher, often incorrectly called a code, can be employed to keep the enemy from obtaining the contents of transmissions. (Technically, a code is a means of representing a signal without the intent of keeping it secret; examples are Morse code and ASCII.) Simple ciphers include the substitution of letters for numbers, the rotation of letters in the alphabet, and the "scrambling" of voice signals by inverting the sideband frequencies. More complex ciphers work according to sophisticated computer algorithms that rearranges the data bits in digital signals. In order to easily recover the contents of an encrypted signal, the correct decryption key is required. The key is an algorithm that undoes the work of the encryption algorithm. Alternatively, a computer can be used in an attempt to break the cipher. The more complex the encryption algorithm, the more difficult it becomes to eavesdrop on the communications without access to the key. Encryption/decryption is especially important in wireless communications. This is because wireless circuits are easier to tap than their hard-wired counterparts. Nevertheless, encryption/decryption is a good idea when carrying out any kind of sensitive transaction, such as a credit-card purchase online, or the discussion of a company secret between different departments in the organization. The stronger the cipher that is, the harder it is for unauthorized people to break it. Now that you understand encryption let me tell you about a software program you can use to help you with encrypting and decrypting your files. “CryptoForge is easy-to-use encryption software for personal and professional security. It allows you to protect the privacy of your sensitive files, folders, or email messages, by encrypting them with up to four strong encryption algorithms. Once the information has been encrypted, it can be stored on insecure media or transmitted on an insecure network -like the Internet- and still remain secret. Later, the information can be decrypted into its original form. CryptoForge adds to Windows the strongest encryption available today. The file encryption module enables you to encrypt, decrypt, and shred -with the built-in file shredder- files of any type, as well as entire folders and drives, from within Windows Explorer or My Computer with right-click ease. The file encryption module handles files of any type and size, on any kind of medium, like hard drives, removable drives, USB Pen-Drives, tape drives, network drives, etcetera. The text encryption module features a secure text editor that allows you to create, encrypt, and decrypt documents in a way that they can be sent via any email or messenger program. CryptoForge documents can contain embedded files, images, sound clips, spreadsheets, and any kind of objects in general.” (www.CryptoForge.com)
Education
So finally who should be educated in these areas and why? When in an organization with network computers and employees working on them for any amount of time should all be educated in these areas. If employees and other staff are not educated on what a virus can do, how it can harm their computers and others, or even why files should be encrypted they will not know what to look for that is suspicious and it could go un reported for periods of time making the threat and or attack great than it could have been had then been properly educated in these areas. It is a good idea for all organizations to have seminars or educations classes on the importance of virus protection, what symptoms to look for to prevent an attack or stolen data, and also why private and or classified information should be encrypted, how to encrypt it and decrypt it to keep it safe and secure from a person who may be interested in intercepting the information.
Summary
Now that I have provided you with the information of what a virus is, what it can do to your network and organization. Why it is important to have anti-virus software, how it will significantly protect your organization and what encryption is and why it is important to use. I hope you now understand why it is very important to take precautions with computers networked in your organization to make sure it is always up and running and never has a down time which could cause you a potential loss of profit. Arming yourself with this knowledge is one of the best ways to keep your organization safe, you can always also research new and upcoming threats, new software and anything that will keep your company protected. I hope that this report has given you the knowledge to prepare your organization to keep out threats and hackers, and how to encrypt and decrypt data so that it does not land in the wrong hands.