There are lots of stories in the press about RANSOMWARE. Excuse the capitals and bold but the urge to sensationalise the story is contagious.
To be a fair it is a big deal, but why all the fuss now? And do any of the stories / journalists actually tell you what to do?
Ransomware has always been a huge problem, but until now having a million plus family computers hijacked is not much of a story, but when the NHS was hit, or a power station gets affected the journalists wake up and engage CAPS LOCK for the big news story.
The change is down to the shift in these criminals targeting companies rather than individuals, because that is where the money is.
And it will get worse for us business owners;
- There was a 3 fold increase in ransomware attacks in 2016.
- Every 40 seconds, a company gets hit with ransomware, up from every 2 minutes in 2016.
So here are the three golden rules I run my company by
- All staff with computers / laptops are told – do not trust anything online where you are not absolutely clear about the origin and legitimacy. Be especially suspicious of all emails with a link, or anything attached, assume the worst. Avoid clicking on anything on websites that you do not 100% trust.
- Make sure your Microsoft updates are up-to-date. This is so important, these are not Microsoft marketing gimmicks but genuine security patches to stop the spread of viruses and ransoware
- Back everything up. Assume you are going get hit, think about the impact, then go and back up everything important.
To quote one of my developers “Careless clicking costs lives!”
You have been warned!
Photo by James Sutton on Unsplash