How To Protect Your Business From Ransomware
Ransomware is an undeniably major threat to businesses around the world today. According to Beasley Breach Response’s 2019 noncompliance report…
- The average ransomware payout is $116,000
- The highest ransomware demanded by cybercriminals was $8.5 million
- The highest ransom paid by a target organization was $935,000
Learn all about ransomware, and how to defend against it, in our latest Tech Tip video:
What Is Ransomware?
In a ransomware attack, an unsuspecting user clicks on a seemingly safe link or an emailed attachment that appears to be a bill or other official document.
Instead, the attachment installs a malicious software program (malware) onto the computer system that encrypts the data and holds it at ransom. The user is then stuck without access to their data, and faced with paying the attacker a huge sum.
How Should You Protect Against Ransomware?
- Confirm that anti-malware and antivirus settings are deployed to automate all updates and to continually conduct system and device scans.
- Access controls should be configured so that shared permissions for directories, files, and networks are restricted. The default settings should be “read-only” access to essential files, with limited permissions for write access to critical files and directories.
- Train your staff to ask themselves these key questions before opening an email:
- Do I know the sender of this email?
- Does it make sense that it was sent to me?
- Can I verify that the attached link or PDF is safe?
- Does the email threaten to close my accounts or cancel my cards if I don’t provide information?
- Is this email really from someone I trust or does it just look like someone I trust? What can I do to verify?
- Does anything seem “off” about this email, its contents, or the sender?
- If you have you have a data backup solution, then it doesn’t matter if your data has been encrypted. You can just replace it with your backup, simple as that.That’s why you should make a considerable investment in a comprehensive backup data recovery solution so that you can restore your data at a moment’s notice when necessary. Be sure to:
- Back up data on a regular basis (at least daily).
- Inspect your backups to verify that they maintain their integrity.
- Secure your backups and keep them independent from the networks and computers they are backing up.
Is Your Business’ Cybersecurity Effectively Managed?
BC Networks offers comprehensive cybersecurity services to protect businesses like yours against ransomware. If you’re not getting the support you need from your current IT company, then you should consider making a change.
Click here to get started or call us at (408) 243-1100.
Experience and strategy are what set us apart from other San Jose, Silicon Valley & South Bay IT companies. We deliver consistently optimal results following our carefully developed and mature set of IT practices and procedures.
