Poor content security can also increase the chances of systems falling victim to a virus or Trojan attack, particularly in combination with a failure to devise or enforce guidelines for the use of mobile equipment. Even if the network's external defences are sound, a lack of content security at the desktop could allow contaminated material downloaded onto mobile devices or laptops spreading onto the corporate network when those devices are connected to the corporate network. Forensic investigations have traced outbreaks of the Sasser virus within a corporate network back to an infected laptop.

It is important that regularly updated, content filtering and multi-software anti-virus and anti-spam solutions are implemented at the desktop as well as at the network gateway level to guard against these threats. Context has many years of experience providing independent advice on the design, selection and implementation of content security solutions, and also offers forensic investigation and testing services designed to help clients find out if a breach of acceptable use policy indicates a larger problem, and to ensure that system filtering and monitoring are stringent enough to prevent the wrong material passing out of the organisation.

See our computer forensics and penetration and application testing pages for more details.