Government facilities, hospitals, school districts, state and local governments, law enforcement agencies, small businesses, large businesses—just a few of the entities impacted recently by ransomware, a devious type of malware that locks valuable data files and demands a ransom to release them.
The inability to access the important data these kinds of organizations keep can be devastating in terms of the loss of sensitive information, the disruption to regular operations, financial losses incurred to restore systems and files, and the potential harm to an organization’s reputation.
During 2015, law enforcement saw an increase in these Ransomware attacks, particularly against organizations because the payoffs were higher. And if the first three months of this year are any indication, the number of ransomware incidents—and the ensuing damage they cause—will grow even more in 2016 if individuals and organizations don’t prepare for these attacks in advance.
In order to mitigate the risks associated with Ransomware attacks, organizations must invest in the proper security measures:
- 1) adopt robust technical prevention controls
- 2) Train and retrain employees on the threats that exist and identify the steps that should be taken when a threat has been discovered
- 3) Backup files regularly and keep a recent backup off-site.
- 4) Don’t enable macros - Some ransomware is distributed in Office documents that trick users into enabling macros.
- 5) Use caution when opening unsolicited attachments.
Call PalmTech at (561)969-1616 for a Security & Backup Audit, which will assess your company’s overall network health to review numerous data-loss and security loopholes. Don’t risk being a victim. Be certain your business, your reputation and your data are protected.