Techblog
How to Protect Your Business from Ransomware Attacks
The recent “Petya” and “WannaCry” ransomware attacks have raised alarms all over the globe. The cyberattack reportedly breached systems in more than 74 countries with vital information such as medical records held vulnerable.
Ransomware is a type of malware that holds your digital files “hostage” until you pay to unlock them - often using the encrypted digital currency which operates outside of mainstream banking bitcoins. It is easy to get infected as it can be spread via email.
“Small company, big money”
You may think that ransomware attacks only happen to big corporations or government institutions, but the cybercriminals have increasingly started to target small organisations as well. They find it easy and profitable to hack into the databases of SMEs because these are usually left unprotected.
According to a study done by the International Data Corporation, for four in five Singapore SMEs, downtime can cost at least $20,000 per hour or more, which can have a significant impact on business continuity. Smaller businesses that cannot afford this downtime would usually pay the “ransom” to avoid such large losses.
When you are a victim of a ransomware attack, there are two options. You can either restore just the lost data using a backup or try to rollback the entire system to an earlier date (which again depends on whether a system backup is in place). Unfortunately, there are plenty of SMEs who don't back up their systems, and many bulky legacy systems that are still in use by companies would be problematic to reset. Due to these factors, many hackers are now finding it profitable to target the smaller companies that have few or no security systems in place.
Prevention is better than cure
There are 2 simple steps that SMEs can easily adopt as the first step to protecting your business from hackers.
Team members should be adequately oriented on how to spot phishing emails, which are often used as the delivery vehicle for ransomware. A phishing email is something designed to look like a request from someone you know or a commonly used app. It asks the user to enter their login details which it then steals and uses to hack the system. Something simple as clicking on a bad link can serve as a gateway for malicious code to enter your network.
Another way to protect yourself is to have an updated backup system. Most enterprises are familiar with using tapes and disks to backup their data, but in the event of a system failure, they are unable to recover their data immediately leading to unplanned downtime. To solve this problem, there are third-party solutions providers that can help secure your backup data in case a malware incident happens to your company.
Singtel offers a backup and disaster recovery solution that delivers complete data protection on your physical workstations and servers. The Singtel Business Backup Suite is a cloud backup solution, managed by a single, easy-to-use console powered by Acronis, the winner of the Data Center Solutions (DCS) Award for best Cloud Storage Product in 2016. A remote backup will help ensure that your backup files are intact even if your entire local network is crippled by an attack.
Business Backup Suite allows you to deploy and manage your backup service easily and quickly. It supports any operating System, any file system and any storage location. The backup is stored in a SSAE 16, MTCS-Singapore-certified, Tier IV designed data centre in Singapore. It is an easy and effective way to manage your data safely and securely, so you have no worries in case another wave of cyberattacks happen to the international business community.
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Ransomware now frequently targets smaller organisations
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It is very important to keep your data secure from cybercriminals as any downtime can affect operations and profit.
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Systems should be in place within your organisation to safeguard against cyber attacks.
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A reliable backup and disaster recovery solution will help keep data intact and available at zero lead time.