eBook: Internet.com's security experts take a look at today's most popular operating systems to see what PC users can do to make their computing experience safe from online threats. They also examine online patches and the current state of security software to see who is winning the battle between software and malware.

The challenge of complying with a growing number of frequently changing government, industry and internal regulations designed to protect data is becoming harder and more expensive to manage. This paper outlines the rules, looks at the main threats to security compliance and highlights how a well-defined strategy, backed up by powerful technology can provide the solution.

Predicting the future in such a rapidly evolving environment is near impossible. One only needs to count the rate at which new malware appears today compared to five years ago to see how quickly the threat has become more serious. Read our security threat report to read about the malware trends we predict will be at the forefront in 2009.

End users running unauthorized virtual environments on their computers make corporate systems and data much more vulnerable. This paper describes the hidden threats raised by unauthorized unsecured desktop virtualization, and gives five effective ways to secure yourself against them.

Today's fast, targeted, silent threats take advantage of the open network and new technologies that support an increasingly mobile workforce. Organizations need innovative approaches to protect the web, email servers, and endpoint. This paper discusses the security implications of modern threats, analyzes where emerging technologies can add real value, and highlights five key strategies for ensuring solid malware protection.

The current risk to computers running non-Windows platforms is small but growing. As Macs and Linux computers become more prevalent within organizations, they are likely to become more of a target for hackers as a way in to the rest of the network and a means of infecting websites. This paper investigates the real threat from non-Windows platforms. It discusses the dangers of them distributing Windows viruses, examines the implications of their growing popularity, and highlights regulatory pressure to protect them.

Employees installing legitimate but unauthorized applications, are a real and growing threat to business security and productivity. Removable storage media and wireless protocols make the challenge of securing data even more complex. This paper explains why control is important and highlights how integrating this functionality into malware protection is the simplest and most cost-effective solution.

As attitudes to work and information continue to evolve away from those of the past, organizations are becoming more aware of the acute need to control the information that flows into, through, and out of their networks. This paper demonstrates the need for a high-profile acceptable use policy to prevent data leakage, gives practical guidance on how to use current investments in IT security technologies at the gateway and endpoint to support this policy, and describes where new investment should realistically be made.

As organizations turn to network access control (NAC) technologies to protect their networks and data, the flaws of earlier versions of NAC are becoming apparent. New pressures from a constantly changing threat environment and an increasingly mobile workforce require a new NAC model that will offer more finely controlled network access, an increased agility of response, and a better focus on network, desktop, and security operations. This paper looks at where NAC 1.0 went wrong and describes how the new perspective of NAC 2.0 will allow organizations the flexibility of control to ensure effective endpoint and network governance.

With organizations facing a growing number of threats and an increasingly regulated business environment, ensuring security and compliance across the email infrastructure is paramount. The complexity of this challenge requires a comprehensive solution. To block attacks and enforce acceptable use of email, organizations need to deploy integrated protection at the email gateway, on the email server, and on all endpoint computers. This paper explores the threats facing email infrastructures, illustrating the need for multi-layered security.

Evaluating the performance of competing endpoint security products is a time-consuming and daunting task. Enterprise decision-makers have to rely on independent competitive comparisons, performance benchmarks, and detection certifications, all covering different solutions and criteria, providing conflicting results. This paper highlights the pitfalls of simply looking at virus detection rates and investigates the effect of the rapidly developing IT environment and fast-moving threat landscape on assessment criteria. It gives the six critical questions businesses need to ask to ensure the most successful outcome to their evaluations.

Protecting IT networks used to be a straightforward case of encircling computers and servers with a firewall and ensuring that all traffic passed through just one gateway. However, the increase in mobile workers, numbers and type of device and the amount of non-employees requiring network access, has led to a dissolving of that network perimeter. Access requests can come from anyone and anywhere, which is why organizations are turning to network access control (NAC) technologies. This paper discusses why NAC is important and how it should be implemented on the endpoint for maximum protection.

Employees increasingly expect to use the internet at work for their own personal use in return for longer hours, working from home and interrupting vacations. This has a number of security, productivity, bandwidth and legal ramifications that require organizations to create and implement a web usage policy that is backed up by effective web filtering tools. This paper discusses how to create a policy that balances an organization's need for protection against an individual's expectations.