In the past few years there have been many large companies announcing that they have been victims of ransomware—malicious software that holds a business’s or company’s data hostage until a specified fee is paid. Ransomware can also affect the individual but is more heinous when personal client information—health or financial information—can be compromised. And often the attacks come halfway around the world and are done by criminals you’ve never personally met.
If you run any type of business or have treasured data, files, etc. on your business or home computer, it’s important to protect yourself against ransomware.
What is Network Software?
Network software that can provide regular security scans to detect any malicious attacks may be your first line of defense against losing valuable data.
These attacks often come through phishing attacks. It’s important to delete suspicious emails before opening them up, and not install any software unless it’s from a reputable company. You can also install ad blockers on your site, as certain ads have been known to carry malware.
It can be nearly impossible to keep your employees or staff from deciphering whether an email or website is suspicious. It’s best to have up-to-date security technology in place as your first defense.
This software is designed to protect desktop systems from infection. It can also detect ransomware and malware. Really good software will block 100% of attacks from suspicious sources.
Software may also be able to help in the event of a ransomware lockdown. The software will assist you in unlocking files or bypassing the ransom-locking system, particularly if it’s a later strain, or they’ve used a familiar encryption method.
Your next defense is to have regular backups of your data. In the event your data is held hostage, you can simply report the attack to the authorities, and begin restoring your system back to where it was once it got locked up.
One of the best ways to back up your data is with a cloud-based service. Your data is stored off-site, and completely separate from your own servers. If your organization has suffered an attack, you can simply access your data through the cloud and not have to pay a ransom.
Another benefit of backing up to the cloud is that many ransomware attackers will not only gain entry to desktop systems, before working their way through the network to the servers, but they’ll also target backup systems too.
If you do backups to a local storage device or server, it’s important to keep them offline and not directly connected to the desktop systems that the ransomware attacker can reach. This is also applicable if you use external hard drives for backup. After the backup is done, they should be disconnected and locked up.
If your computer or business is a victim of a ransomware attack, it’s best to shut down your system immediately. This keeps it from spreading. And now that you were smart enough to have a backup system in place, you’ll be able to quickly rebuild and reduce losses and income to your business.
If you’re worried about ransomware attacks, iConnect Technologies provides a solution that will protect you from malicious attacks. And if you run any sort of business, company, or organization, it’s important that your business data is kept 100% secure at all times. Please contact us today.
