What I really want to know is, are your business network, systems, computers ALL backed up and current with patches?
This week a situation arose at a potential client site that caused a lot of trouble. Enough so that I thought I needed to tell the story to get folks aware of the real implications behind not backing your computers up.
I got a call on Monday from a business that had just been locked up by ransomware. Even though everyone had been warned ad nauseam about phishing expeditions and ransomware, warnings did not stick. If you’re like many of us, we are aware of the dangers, but don’t understand the implications of them until we get bit, stung or poked.
When it comes to risks of infections, users understand why backups are important. The problem is that they don’t realize their work isn’t getting backed up.
Even software and computer engineers (people who should understand the importance in backing up data!) don’t always pay attention. The guy who got infected with Cryptowall happened to be a software engineer working remotely. He was under the impression that his computer was being backed up and didn’t give another thought to having to worry about losing any of his work.
But when I checked in with the IT department, I learned that the last time his computer was backed up was in April 2016—over 4 months without a backup! And a similar tale had gone on for antivirus and Windows patching—he thought he was current, but really was not. Making him an easier target for cybercriminals! More often than not, the new normal is that people are over-confident about their computers being protected and backed up. The reality is: unless you or someone on your team is backing things up AND testing to make sure the backups are really backing up, your business is left to hope everything is okay.
Backups and patching are even more important for remote workers. When someone works off-site regularly, they risk being infected even more than the rest of your office. Because they aren’t protected by protection built into your network (assuming you have someone managing your network properly and preventing bad things from getting in).
The business’ leadership are adamantly against paying a ransom—and I can’t blame them (they were being charged over $5000 for just one computer!).
Inconsistent backup practices can lead to a lot of headaches— bigger headaches than just lost files. You might be opening a door to government prosecution, poor reputation and mistrust across your customers and potential customers (i.e., out of business!).
What do you need to avoid a headache like this? Regularly back up your computers, networks—everything that is important to your business running. If you are a Dynamic Edge customer, rest assured your backups are occurring daily.
Can you live risking your business’ data and reputation just because you thought things were working but had no idea if they really were? Contact Us Today for a free network assessment to learn what really is going on!
