The smaller your company is, the more prone it is to being hacked with ransomware. It may seem unlikely, given your revenue or less intimidating position in the market. However, businesses like yours are equipped with fewer cyber security defenses
The smaller your company is, the more prone it is to being hacked with ransomware. It may seem unlikely, given your revenue or less intimidating position in the market. However, businesses like yours are equipped with fewer cyber security defenses, putting you at higher risk.
It’s a scary thought—getting your company’s server hacked into, by ransomware no less. When this type of malware gains access to your privacy and encrypts your data using a key that can only be accessed by the hacker. In order to reclaim your information, you’re obligated to pay a fee, and this does not guarantee you’ll actually get your data back. Unfortunately, there are no known antivirus solutions to encrypt these unique keys.
A hospital fell victim to ransomware, putting its reputation on the line, as well as hundreds of patients at risk. Data was held hostage, meaning, health care practitioners could not access patients’ records, crucial to handling their conditions at that time. As you can imagine, there was no time to waste, so the hospital had to make a quick decision—either try to restore data from a recent backup or pay the ransom. Since the last backup occurred days before, the hospital’s only choice was to pay $15,000 to [possibly] get back all of its data. Luckily, it worked.
Most cases are not as severe as this one, but losing data or your business identity is frightening. At a public school, teachers received an email from the principal. Or at least it looked like she sent it. Following business as usual, a teacher opened this email with the subject, “Your HR forms enclosed.” Without a second thought, he clicked to download the .PDF, only to find that it was ransomware, threatening him to pay in order to regain the school’s data. This teacher should have seen the red flag—why would the principal send HR-related documents? On the other hand, how many people would question their boss?
There are many commercial products available to protect your system from ransomware, but configuring them properly can be a real bear. Without the proper IT team and resources, your ransomware protection could be useless.
Link High’s security bundles are packed with some of the best protection on the market—a multi-layer defense package that includes a firewall known as Unified Threat Management (UTM), frequent backup, and email filtering.
The bottom line is ransomware can penetrate pretty much anything—even your UTM. That’s why backup is essential for saving your data, and it’s more cost-effective than paying ransom.
Link High’s email filtering scans all incoming emails for viruses and will withhold them in order to protect your business. All emails are stored with Link High, and they’re accessible by smartphone or any other device via an app.
This malicious, tech-space deviant we know as ransomware is “expected to cause $1 billion in damages every year.” David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin, CNN tech. Just by being equipped with Link High’s multi-layer security, your chances of being attacked by ransomware are reduced significantly.
