With October being CyberSecurity Awareness Month, let’s talk about something a little frightening – ransomware! Ransomware is currently the most prominent malware threat, especially for businesses. The costs of ransomware is projected to increase to $20 billion by 2021. In 2019, the estimated damages caused by ransomware were at $11.5 billion and in 2018, $8 billion. Although, the costs of ransomware attacks are increasing, the detection rate has also increased – up 543% in Q4 2018 and 820% in May 2019. This is the good news and can be directly attributed to advances in the cybersecurity solutions that have made it more difficult for ransomware attacks to be successful. Unfortunately, not all organizations deploy the best security solutions, leaving vulnerabilities that older ransomware can still exploit, while new ransomware has continued to evolve.
Ransomware attacks are happening on a global scale and are growing more prevalent each day. Whether your company is small or large, you can become a victim of a malware infection, including ransomware attacks that come to you via email, websites, or downloads.
Customers want to be able to trust that their IT staff can protect their data. You want to feel confident that the IT staff is fully equipped to avoid the attack. When, not if, your system has been compromised, you want to have assurance in knowing your company will not shut down because of a ransomware attack.
The best defense against malware, such as this, is a multi-layered defense. Regularly backing up data, promoting the education of cybersecurity best practices, and endpoint email scanners should all be working together to provide the best protection against these hauntings. By backing up your data, a single rollback to an uninfected backup can fix all of your immediate ransomware concerns. Endpoint email scanners can block phishing emails from getting through. And finally, educating a workforce in cybersecurity best practices will minimize the chances of malicious links being clicked. As a Managed Service Provider, CHR has the experience necessary to provide a multi-layered turnkey cybersecurity solution. Just think of us as your personal Ghost Buster.
