Ojith Nishantha's Web Portal

While the technology powering notebooks keeps on getting better, businesses’ efforts at guarding them do not seem to be keeping pace: the headlines in 2008 include a record number of notebook losses.

Here, we list a number of physical and software-based steps which you can take to keep notebooks and their data safe.

When in a public place, keep the notebook in sight
Notebook thieves often work in pairs: one to distract you, one to steal. If you’re sitting in an airport café with your bag on the chair opposite you, out of your eyeline, you’ll be a target. All someone needs to do is make you look to one side (“Do you have the time?”) and you won’t notice someone else stealing the bag containing your notebook.

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Even if you have just one mobile worker in your business, you need to ask some tough questions about the potential risks that a notebook poses. If it fell into the wrong hands, would the data put your customers’ privacy at risk? Does it contain sensitive data about your business? If you don’t put protective measures in place, would you be opening yourself up to a potentially expensive and damaging lawsuit?

 We already know that humans are fallible – they leave notebooks in car boots, they don’t back up data, they reveal passwords in return for chocolate – so you should plan for the worst even if you hope for the best.

A new threat that comes under the guise of a genuine antivirus program has become increasingly prevalent over the past year. Offering to locate and remove malware from your PC, this rogue will actually install a Trojan on your unsuspecting system. The process is usually initiated when you click a link for what you believe is valid security software or its vendor's site.

Artwork: Chip Taylor

Microsoft said that the anti-malware tool it pushes to Windows users as part of Patch Tuesday removed fake security software from nearly a million PCs during nine days this month.

In a post to the company's malware protection center blog on Wednesday, three of Microsoft's security researchers spelled out the impact this month's edition of the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) has had on phony security software. In the period from Nov. 11 to Nov. 19, said Scott Wu, Scott Molenkamp and Hamish O'Dea, MSRT purged more than 994,000 machines of what the tool recognizes as "W32/FakeSecSen," the malware label for a broad range of bogus security program with names such as "Advanced Antivirus," "Spyware Preventer," "Ultimate Antivirus 2008" and "XPert Antivirus."

A computer virus has infected three London hospitals, which has reportedly shut down their computer systems for at least 24 hours.

The BBC reported that Sir Bartholomew’s (Barts) in the City, the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green, were forced to shut down their systems. The facilities make up St Bartholomew’s and The London NHS Trust.