Ransomware, in recent years, is still one of the biggest threats posed to Business, in particular Enterprise, but also can equally affect the SME market. Studies conducted in recent years show that a staggering 86% of SMB’s were subject to a ransomware attack of some form. Attackers like this type of business as they are more likely to pay up on the ransom demanded of them. At the end of the day, we all know where the money is headed, and we always advise never to pay the ransom, but when faced with the decision that if you pay the ransom, you have a chance of getting your data back, versus, if you dont pay, there is no chance, what would you do ? Sit around and wait for a decryption tool to be developed, or rely on your backup strategy ?
Downtime for any business can be make or break time, coupled with the loss of confidence by your customers, the cost of the breach, any fines from the ICO or payment companies, it is easy to see how businesses can go out of their respective business.
A lot of businesses rely on the software and systems security for their business, and dont invest in staff training or a continuous security awareness program
Any downtime or lost data can sometimes be the difference between make or break for all businesses regardless, however larger businesses can mostly weather the storm. So far this year as of July (just only halfway through the year, the number of ransomware detections has nearly passed the total of 2018 already!
From as little as £2 per month we can help businesses protect themselves against Ransomware.
We’ve seen ransomware attacks on huge firms across the world so far this year including one such attack targeting an engineering firm in France, a hydro company in Finland, and two chemical companies from the US. This infection was referred to as LockerGoga and is known for targeting the manufacturing sector and is innovative in the way that it doesn’t shut off your whole machine but selectively infects certain files it knows are prized by the owner. Conversely we have been involved in small businesses where they have been the victim of Ransomware.
Another popular piece of ransomware that came to the forefront in these past few months is called GandCrab and has so far earned itself over $2 billion (thats right $2 billion !) in payouts from companies willing to pay the price to get their data back. We have seen decryptors out there for several versions of GandCrab, and there was a story that it no longer exists (however, rumour has it that it has just gone for a rebrand….) Kaspersky estimated that GandCrab holds over 40% of the current market when it comes to Ransomware currently.
When it comes to Ransomware, or indeed any security, nothing is ever 100% secure. If you are a small business, invest in some decent AV, email and web filtering. If you are a larger business or one man band alike, look at continually testing and educating yourself and your staff, make sure they know the three questions to ask of any email;
- Stop, Look and Think (sounds like the Green Cross Code with Tufty the Squirrel)
- Are there Red Flags – check with the sender through a different medium to make sure the email is valid
- When in doubt, throw it out
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Our two top tips against Ransomware – make sure you have great Malware protection and make sure your backups are solid and secure and not backing up to an external drive which can easily be infected by Ransomware.
