Last week’s massive ransomware outbreak called WannaCry that affected over 150 countries and dominated the news headlines globally was just the beginning.... We expect newer, more malicious versions any day.
This event had a massive impact everywhere, including the National Health Scheme in UK, blocking all access to patient records. Imagine what it could do to your business?
Ransomware is malicious software that blocks and encrypts computers and files (including backups) until a ransom is paid to organised crime. It spreads very easily across networks.
Organised crime reaped over USD $300million from one ransomware variant in 2016 alone. No wonder they invest in newer techniques every few months to trick people into running malicious software.
The result of such an attack may be complete loss of access to the data on all of your connected computer systems and your backups. The resulting damage to your business, customers, suppliers and employees could be catastrophic.
Paying the ransom may often seem like the only option but it is no guarantee that the ransom won’t be increased or the damage reversed or a backdoor left open for future attacks. Contrary to opinion, Telstra’s latest Cybersecurity Report showed that in 2016 less than 1/3 of people retrieved their data after paying the ransom.
Smaller Businesses are being Targeted
Wannacry was a general attack on all vulnerable users / computers around the world. No business is immune. Small and medium sized businesses, who often think they are too small or unimportant to be targeted are increasingly seen by criminal organisations as ‘soft targets’.
In fact, smaller enterprises like yours probably don’t have the scale and resources of larger enterprises like the UK’s NHS to survive an attack. It’s even more vital you protect yourself.
In recent months it has become clear that conventional anti-virus solutions, though reasonably adequate to date have been far out-paced by the capabilities of modern malware.
To stay protected from the latest ever sophisticated “threat landscape” requires a proactive, managed and continually evolving solution. These attacks can only be mitigated if continually updated layers of systems and processes are maintained to keep pace. This is called “Active Defence in Depth”.
Until recently, this was beyond the reach of businesses of your size.
We have launched a Free Report on how you can start protecting your business. The 10 Most Critical IT Security Protections Every Business Must Have In Place NOW.
The WannaCry attacks are a wake-up call and urgent reminder of the ever present threat that is only one click away. Please remember that should your data be compromised the subsequent disruption to your business could be an expensive, even disastrous test of your current defences.
ACT NOW !
