(Steve Dispensa, eWeek) Malware has caused the industry to rethink its security best practices, introducing tools such as transaction verification to guard against real-time, man-in-the-middle attacks. Out-of-band authentication mechanisms are growing rapidly in popularity. While it is certain that malware will continue to evolve, Knowledge Center contributor Steve Dispensa offers four simple steps you can take to significantly reduce your malware-induced security breach exposure.

In a recent survey of IT professionals, over 32 percent felt that malware installed on PCs will pose the greatest external threat to IT security over the next 12 months. Over 16 percent indicated that malware on mobile devices presented the greatest threat. In total, malware running on PCs and mobile devices was ranked the top threat for 2010 by nearly 50 percent of respondents.

Fortunately, there are four concrete steps you can take to prevent malware threats in your organization:

1. Step No. 1: Have a corporate anti-malware solution
2. Step No. 2: Patch!
3. Step No. 3: Deploy strong authentication
4. Step No. 4: Use transaction verification