Let's face it, we've all dealt with cyber security threats. From e-mails being hacked all the way to losing everything to cryptovirus. This year it's looking even worse for Cyber Security Threats. There's been a HUGE jump in ransomware attacks, not just small businesses either. I'm sure everyone remembers when the JBS pipeline was taken down due to ransomware.
2022 is going to be a breakthrough year for criminals for more than one reason.
This is one of the biggest driving factors of cyber crime, it seems to be just big payoffs with no real punishments. By the time the FBI finds the bad actors, they've already closed up shop and moved on.
Now more than ever, it's very easy to find out how to deploy and curate ransomware even for less savvy users. You can simply buy a package off the dark web and you're ready to go.
Utilizing crypto currencies like bitcoin, it's never been easier to stay off the radar when getting paid illegally, making millions with ransom isn't even showing up on the IRS radar because the money is in a nontrackable source. So big criminals don't even need to worry about tax evasion.
As the new year starts to gain momentum, it's time that we all take a good hard look at our IT security and ensure that we are protected. Small and large businesses alike need to have excellent industry standard practices in place to ensure that they don't lose their entire year of profits from one slip in an e-mail.
Here are some steps you can take in your business to make 2022 your least at-risk year. Best yet, you can contact us for all of these things. (sales@qeh2.com)
Your staff are the last lines of defense when it comes to protecting your business. No amount of antivirus or spam filtering will be perfect. Have your staff attend at least one training on how to spot everything from suspicious e-mail all the way to social engineering.
In the event that you do get ransomware, the only real option other than paying the bad actors is to restore from a backup. Instead of just a flat file backup, which most people have, talk to your IT professionals for a real BDR solution. In a catastrophic event, a proper BDR solution will have you back up in minutes versus weeks, with hourly snapshots of not just data but the environment as well, it would be as if nothing happened. No hefty bill, no paid ransom, no scrambling, just business as usual.
This new software is known as the anti-virus killer. It works in such a way that it will be able to detect any malfeasance before it starts to attack your systems. It stops things before they start.
Ask your IT company a few simple questions, such as:
How are our systems Updated?
What type of Disaster Recovery Solution do we have?
How often do we run backups?
Can you restore our data to test?
These should be incredibly easy to answer, and if they're not. It's time to start shopping for better IT. You're in the right place for that, just give us a call.
This year is supposed to be a banner year for cyber criminals, let's not let them win.