Ransomware attacks are scary. Recently featured on 60 Minutes, ransomware is a huge threat to businesses. The story shows how attackers can come after any organization, featuring a hospital (just outside of Indianapolis) and two separate municipalities. The attacks on these particular organizations encrypted all of their files and even files in their backups, creating the worst possible scenario. Here is a short video posted by 60 Minutes about protecting your data and avoiding a ransomware attack.
One of the towns, Leeds, AL, and the hospital (Hancock Hospital) both ended up paying the ransom so that they could get up and running quickly, rather than try to find some other way to restore their data. Atlanta, GA, however, decided not to pay and spent millions of dollars in lost time and in efforts to recover from the attack.
Even though paying the ransom may seem like the quicker and less costly way to go, it’s not always the best decision to give in to cybercriminals. Here’s why:
- There’s no guarantee that paying the ransom money will actually restore your files. You are trusting a criminal to be ethical.
- Hackers will continue to profit off of your data even after you pay the ransom. From the moment your systems were infected, data could have been transferring overseas and sold off over and over.
- Even after paying the ransom, you should rebuild all of the computers and servers. The hackers could have left something behind to hit you again.
The best solution is prevention. Here are a few steps that you can take to help prevent ransomware on your computers (also check out our series on ransomware and how to protect yourself http://www.bytecafe.net/2017/03/what-is-ransomware/ ):
- Use anti-ransomware software. We protect our clients with SentinelOne which stops these types of attacks.
- Make sure you have a back-up solution that is set up with an on-site location and multiple off-site locations. With this method, you should be able to roll back to data that was stored before the ransomware attack happened.
- Have an IT partner, like us, monitor your systems and make sure you are taking the necessary precautions to securing your data.
To learn more about security solutions and protecting yourself against cybercrimes, visit our “12 Ways to Prevent a Data Breach” where the 12 essential protections are listed and detailed: http://www.bytecafe.net/services-solutions/security-solutions/
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at www.bytecafe.net/about-us/contact-us/ or 317-372-7625.