Ransomware – In February 2018, there were 2,234,633 breached records recorded (source: IT Governance).
A study of those breaches highlighted that the hackers have shifted their focus to ransomware. This is being predicted to become the fastest growing form of computer virus.
What is ransomware?
Computer viruses that threaten to delete your files unless you pay a ransom are known as ransomware. Like other computer viruses, it usually finds its way onto a device by exploiting a security hole in vulnerable software, or by tricking somebody into installing it. Ransomware works because it relies on users’ lax security practices. More and more cyber criminals are turning to it for their source of income.
At V12 Tech we take a multi-layered approach to cyber security.
For our larger clients, we install high-end firewalls. In addition to blocking direct attacks to their networks, we also include a number of additional software features which protect individual machines:
- Intrusion Prevention
- URL Filtering
- Gateway Antivirus
- Reputation-Based Threat Prevention
- Spam Prevention
For smaller businesses and home computers, we either install F-Secure or Malwarebytes which include local antivirus and firewall protection.
We are increasingly finding that as clients security DEFENSES improve, the nature of the attacks are evolving.
It is now very common for emails to be received that aim to:
- entice the recipient to reveal usernames and passwords
- install software onto their machines themselves
- direct the user to a website that contains malicious code. This is where the software that blocks access to such sites becomes invaluable
Data Backups.
We cannot stress enough the importance of secure, regular ‘offline’ back-ups of data, both for single machines and network server environments.
This can be as simple as regular back-ups to local offline storage such as USB disk, or automated encrypted back-ups to local and cloud-based systems.
