Virus, General

 

[Revised Oct 04].

 

 

A common route of infection by computer viruses is email, usually by way of a virus concealed in an attachment. The risk can be reduced by having email come into a Slave as it is less serious for a Slave to be infected than the Master, but some viruses can travel down networks so an infection anywhere will spread to all units.

 

The cure

Getting rid of a virus often involves a complete 'scorched earth' approach of cleaning off everything off all machines and rebuilding everything from Windows itself back up. Depending on the virus it is even possible for backups to be corrupted, leading to loss of data and unclaimable scripts, so the possible consequences are serious. If hit by a virus contact us urgently, this is a business emergency akin to a fire in the shop, well do everything we can to lessen the damage.

Notes; If a technician is taking the Master away for repair or taking it off the network, get in touch with us before putting it back on the network. The damage done by a Virus or Trojan often requires specialised knowledge of RxOne to repair and data can be lost if the fix is performed by even a competent computer technician if they are not fully conversant with pharmacy requirements.

 

Prevention

1. Have a good antivirus program on your email machine and keep it up to date.

2. Have the email settings to NOT open anything until you say.

3. Do not allow staff/private/non business use of the pharmacy email. Photos of the staff Christmas party and the latest joke may be hiding more than you realise.

4. Do not open attachments on a business machineā€¦ forward anything containing attachments to a home computer where the consequences of infection are less, and open them there.

 

Related Topic

Opaserv Virus