Ransomware IT Support

It happens in an instant: an employee clicks on a PDF or Word file. The subject line seems harmless: “your updated invoice” or “the resume you requested.” One click and a simple command runs in the background, downloading the virus that encrypts your company’s files without anyone knowing until it’s too late.

While anti-virus/anti-malware software helps, even the FBI Cyber division admits these new hacker methods of attack are difficult to protect against if a user clicks on that “harmless” looking attachment. Making it worse, older computers are easy targets. They often lack the patches and updates needed to keep these viruses out.

But there are simple and affordable things you can do today that can keep the ransomware threat at arms-length away from your company…

How to protect your business from Ransomware

1) Remind co-workers regularly about email safety—know the sender, don’t click unless you’re sure, and when in doubt call to verify attachment—and it needs to repeatedly reinforced. Once a month is good schedule for this reminder.

2) Make sure you have a robust spam service in front of your email system. Not only will your email have less spam, but many services track common email attacks and can flag suspicious emails before they even hit your organization.

3) Backups, backups, and more backups. It’s not good enough just to have server backups. Sever backups need to be tested to make sure they can be restored. Don’t just look at your server(s) either, make sure you have set up Time Machine on Macs and automatic backups for your data that resides on PCs (admit you do it – too many still save data locally!).

But even those things don’t offer the protection a competent Network Support company can offer. For example, even if one of your co-workers clicks on that file, there are things we can do as an IT Support company to keep the ransomware from working… and full disclosure, the tools are very affordable.

Is your company one click away from ransomware

Lastly, we strongly encourage getting Network Assessments done at regular intervals. These will show security holes that need fixing and policies that need updating. Did you know many VoIP phone companies open up firewall ports to do maintenance? Too often we find these ports left open, putting the entire network at risk. A Network Assessment will show these issues so they can be detected and fixed and many small businesses such as lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, media companies, schools and healthcare companies have strict regulations to ensure security issues are regularly fixed and backup-restore processes tested.

Ransomware is scary to think about but the right IT Support company can make sure your network is secure and backups ready to go at a moment’s notice. It’s all about putting a strong process in place to ensure staying on top of the growing risks and keeping the counter-measures current.

That’s peace-of-mind IT.

Need to know more about protecting your business from Ransomware contact us here