How Ransomware Cyber Attacks Can Affect Your Business

Is Your Website at Risk from Ransomware?

Many of you have heard about the massive cyber attack that has sent much of the world into ‘disaster recovery mode’. This is a great wake-up call to remain diligent and acknowledge the importance of good security practices.

As evidenced over the past few days, security of systems and data are essential for any organization to function. We have seen time and time again, an increasing volume and sophistication of cyber security threats.

Cyber Security Threats Include:

• Targeted Phishing Scams
• Data Theft
• Other Online Vulnerabilities.

Nothing in security is 100% full proof.  It is essential that you, and any staff, are proactive to ensure your systems and data are protected.

It is imperative your website is being maintained and looked after thoroughly with timely core code updates, design security patches, and website backups.

The average computer connected to the Internet can easily and unknowingly be compromised in moments.  As we saw this weekend, many attackers gain entry from simple mistakes or lack of knowledge, like clicking on links in emails from unknown sources.  You play an important role and can help protect your business, your information, and your customer’s information.  Help us help you: stay informed, ask questions when you have them, and stay current with appropriate security practices.

How to Protect Yourself from Ransomware:

1. If you use Windows, install the patch that Microsoft has released to block the specific exploit that the ransomware is using. You can find instructions on in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.  You can also directly download the patches for your OS from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
2. If you are using an unsupported version of Windows like Windows XP, Windows 2008 or Server 2003, you can get the patches for your unsupported OS from the Update Catalog. We do recommend that you update to a supported version of Windows as soon as possible.
3. Update your Antivirus software.  Most AV vendors have now added detection capability to block WannaCry.
4. If you don’t have anti-virus software enabled on your Windows machine, we recommend you enable Windows Defender.
5. Backup regularly and make sure you have offline backups.  That way, if you are infected with ransomware, it can’t encrypt your backups.
6. For further reading, Microsoft has released customer guidance for the WannaCry attacks and Troy Hunt has done an excellent detailed writeup on the WannaCry ransomware.

If you have any questions regarding the security of your website, please contact us.