The latest attacks are costing organizations even more money to recover from ransomware. Will you be the next big victim?
With ransomware attacks hitting governments, hospitals and business small and large in 2018, there is no sign of a shortage of case studies for cyber security experts. One recent attack—which I’m sure you’ve heard about by now—has shown just how costly ransomware can be.
I don’t simply mean the cost of paying the ransom note! While some folks may think ‘pay the ransom and be done with it’ may be the easiest solution to re-mediating a ransomware attack, it’s simply not that simple. While ransom notes have gone up in costs in the last year—the current $50,000 price tag is not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to costs associated with an attack.
In that big Samsam attack in late March on the city of Atlanta, Georgia I alluded to above, city officials are still figuring out how to cap its security spending. To-date, the city has shelled out over 3 MILLION dollars in contracts to recover from its devastating ransom attack on March 22, 2018. To-date, there is yet a comprehensive resolution to completely re-mediating the effects from the attack.
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I know that even the thought of a ransom attack on your business leaves a deep burning ulcer-like feeling in the pit of your stomach. We’ve been seeing so many ransom attacks hit businesses, governments, hospitals, you name it—that we’re all tired of seeing the recurring headlines of who was last hit by malicious software encrypting ALL of your critical business files.
But one question that likely won’t surface until you’re actually hit by ransomware is “should I just pay the ransom and be done with this?”
This is a huge question in and of itself. On the one hand, if the criminals kept to their word (usually they do about 75% of the time) you and your team could be back working relatively quickly (typically it takes about a week or so—depending on the size of your network—for a hacker to decrypt all of your files).
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Ransomware has been wreaking havoc throughout the business world for the past decade. With no signs of stopping, security experts have been troubled as to what to advise to clients.
What specific steps have you likely taken already?
Patched your computers?—while experts have been hounding users for years, several businesses that stay vulnerable to attacks—including those throughout healthcare—lack even the most basic updates (updates that Microsoft and other software companies release free of charge) to keep hackers from penetrating their networks. If you’re powered by Dynamic Edge, rest assured we patch and test patches on ALL of your machines.
Train users to understand consequences of clicking on suspicious links?—I’m sure by now you are well-aware of the necessities in keeping your users up to speed on the latest types of attacks. In fact, many criminals still depend completely on users to give them the keys to your data. If you are a Dynamic Edge client, you should expect training as a part of our service to you (either in person, online or just chatting with a technician). We understand that training is a big part of the puzzle to keep your business and its sensitive data safe.
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Earlier this year in January and February, Microsoft issued emergency security updates for vulnerabilities in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 machines. These patches were to counter the chip vulnerabilities found in Intel x64 processors late last year. This series of patches were coined the Meltdown patches.
The problem?
Unfortunately, in hustling to get a patch ready, Microsoft left major vulnerabilities to your network if you or your IT support team had simply applied the Meltdown patch!
In fact, these patches blew gaping holes in your entire Windows operating system.
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The number of cyberattacks has been increasing at an unprecedented rate. I wish this statement—which we’ve been making for years now—was no longer true. But the sad and cold reality is that cyberattacks continue to hit businesses of all sizes. Recent headlines showing the entire city of Atlanta hit by ransomware underscores the heightened threat matrix our businesses are currently confronting.
This Q1 of 2018 has increased to previously unimaginable rates—by nearly 80% in some areas of healthcare this year.
Two reason for increased attacks?
Attacks are more far-reaching today than ever. One of the easiest means for hackers to penetrate networks now is increasing their reach. Their malware is able to spread further and faster than ever before. With networks remaining unpatched and users still susceptible to even common phishing attacks, it’s easier for hackers to expand their targets than morph their attack types.
While many attackers are merely increasing the volume of attacks in expectation of hitting off more victims (by the rule of numbers), some very crafty hackers are increasing their sophistication to outthink IT departments, simultaneously targeting multiple attack vectors.
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The big attack gaining traction among cyber attackers that may strike your business is hard to detect.
It’s nothing new. Fileless malware has been around for quite some time, but its popularity is quickly growing among cyber criminals with targets on business networks.
Because it’s stealthy, efficient and very capable of evading many of the conventional security systems many businesses have in place (like antivirus and conventional firewalls), fileless malware is becoming the ‘go-to’ for attacks on enterprise-grade systems.
Today I want to spend a few minutes on why fileless malware has become so big in the cybercrime community and what you can do to protect yourself from becoming the next organization to fall to its devastating effects.
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