More than 7 times. That is the number that multiple anti-virus companies are reporting that year over year ransomware attacks are increasing. from 2019 to 2020 we are seeing an increase of 715% (according to Bitdefender mid-year threat landscape report 2020) Here at home in the Northern California Valley we read about local companies, we see local cities have not been hit once but twice. We had a client hit just last week (luckily we were able to get his restores applied and lost very little to any work) At this point it isn’t a matter of if but when. Below are some pointers that will help reduce your downtime, and reduce the likelihood of getting hit.
- Train your staff. If they aren’t expecting the email don’t open it. If it is from a new source don’t open it. Call and verify who sent the email, you would be surprised how often email addresses get hacked. Verify the sending email address is who you are expecting it from. (not just a spoof of someone saying they are Marc Sellers but the email address is abc123@gmail.com)
- up-to-date 2nd gen antivirus — we had another attack last week that at a company 3 people opened an email but the anti-virus did it’s job. This is something that could have crippled their company if they were just relying on windows defender.
- Keep up-to-date computers, and windows updates. Updates patches holes in the OS that viruses and hackers exploit. Sure it’s annoying to try to get work done and have the update tell you you have to preform it, but it is there for an important reason.
- Second factor authentication or Multi-factor authentication. stated simply second or multi factor authentication requires another source to prove you are who you say you are. this could be texting you, a finger print on your cell phone, calling you, a phone pin number, etc. For your computer, email, phone, tablets, etc. Second Factor authentication though a bit annoying drops the vulnerability point drastically.
- BACKUPS! Business continuity and disaster recovery. We cannot stress how important consistently taken backups, and consistently VERIFIED backups are in 2020. When was the last time you verified your backups were working and proper? How long can could your business go without losing major revenue if you lost everything? You cannot back up every month then be shocked when you lose 3-4 weeks worth of data. We have some technology that takes snapshots of your server ever 5 minutes for people who drastically count on their servers.
- get a 3rd party to look at your vulnerability points in your network and processes. if we can help give us a call.
Hopefully these tips will help reduce the downtime if you get hit, and help avoid being hit altogether. 2020 has been a tough year for everyone, if we can help please reach out to us at 916-303-4025
