This happens every day to businesses across the world. Most of the time it’s an unknowing employee clicking on a malicious link, but there’s lots of other ways. Then your businesses data becomes encrypted, and you don’t have a backup. Now all of a sudden your business is at the mercy of a hidden entity in whatever remote place of the world. They insist you pay them a ransom in bit coins, which finding a reputable vendor is also a concern, and then you receive a decryption key that may allow you to recover your data. I say may because sometimes it doesn’t work.
Does this sound familiar? I know lots of businesses that this or a similar ransomware story has happened to. Some small, some not so small. The University of Calgary very publicly went through a similar situation as covered by the CBC here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/university-calgary-ransomware-cyberattack-1.3620979
As most attacks occur through e-mail, consider having your staff review this “Safety Checklist”.
- I know the sender of this email.
- It makes sense that this was sent to me.
- The attached link or PDF is something I can verify is safe.
- The email doesn’t threaten to close my accounts or cancel my cards if I don’t provide information.
- This email is from someone I trust, it doesn’t just look like someone I trust!
- Nothing seems “off” about this email, its contents or sender.
Want to do more? Talk to your IT Consultant/Department to find out if you have these technologies in place.
- Disaster Recovery Solution
- Spam Filter Solution
- Secure DNS Solution
