Keeping your company free from viruses can be an expensive and difficult task. The Internet is full of malicious software and hackers trying to access any protected system they can find, and you need to stay ahead of the threats. However expensive the protection might be, going without virus protection can have severe consequences, both for your company and for others.
The most obvious consequence for poor or nonexistent virus protection is lost data. One employee clicking a malicious link can infect your entire computer system with a destructive virus that can shut down your network, wipe your hard drives, and spread to other companies and clients through the Internet. Unless your company is one of the few that doesn't store any mission critical data on computers, keeping an adequate virus protection suite is vital for protecting business documents, databases and other information.
Another consequence of a virus attack is lost time. If a virus manages to infect a single computer or network of computers, you must shut down and disconnect each one from the network before you can even begin to deal with the virus. Attempting to disinfect a networked computer merely leaves it open to re-infection from other machines on the same network. This process can be extremely time-consuming, and until all the machines are clear, you or your employees may find themselves unable to perform basic business tasks. In addition, if you miss a single infected file, the entire cycle of downtime could begin all over again.
Virus software may not be cheap, but neither is the cleanup process. The hours you spend cleaning up an infection are hours not spent handling normal duties, so an infection could increase your overtime expenditures. If the virus manages to damage company data, reconstructing that information could also be an expensive procedure. If you don't have an IT department capable of handling the cleanup, you may have to contract with outside experts whose services don't come cheap.
Much in the same way an unvaccinated person can spread a virus, an unprotected business can serve as a threat to others. One reason hackers attack systems is to take them over for their own uses. A cyber criminal may use a captured system to attempt to break passwords, to reroute his Internet connection to hide from authorities, or simply to use your servers to flood a target with requests, helping to knock them offline. Keeping your security up to date protects not only yourself but others as well.
