The appointment of Barack Obama as president of the US has caused a frenzy world-wide which Cybercriminals are looking to take advantage of. Criminals are targeting computer users with vast numbers of emails circulating with headlines such as "Obama assassinated" that, once clicked, will direct a user to a malicious website installing "Rootkits" on a company’s operating system. Rookits are programs that can be hidden in an operating system and are used to remotely spread malware in the system. So what can SMEs do to avoid falling into the trap?

We’re all interested in the Obama story so the odds of one of us, or someone we know, putting our computers and data at risk is high. First on any IT manager’s, or Business owner’s mind should be ensuring that their spam protection systems are up to date. Up-to-date spam systems should be able to block the majority of malicious emails by qualifying the reputation of the sender. This can be double-checked through resources such as the Reputation Authority (RA) website, which is a global monitoring and protection system purposely created for business and government. It examines more than 2.5 billion emails and 50 billion web traffic everyday. So if you, or an employee, are in any doubt about the validity of a sender the RA website can qualify, saving your business from malware that can exploit you and your business.

Cybercriminals constantly reinvent ways of targeting computer users and it is their goal to engage your interest and make you click on a link. Therefore, SMEs need to be stringent in educating employees on the threat posed by un-reputable emails.

It is important to protect your business’s operating system from allowing Rootkits access. It is inevitable that with the progression of IT and operating systems, old systems can fall behind and gaps can appear which in turn gives malware the window they need. There are now IT diagnostic tools available that remotely monitor and proactively search for potential flaws on an SMEs operating system 24/7. These tools give a constant reel of information through to the person monitoring the operating system allowing them to apply patches and safeguard the system before any malware can take effect.