According to a recently published report from Malwarebytes, malware is more devastating to businesses with less than 1,000 employees than enterprise corporations.  Despite many SMB businesses stating they had anti-malware technologies in place, one-third still experienced an attack.  Of those attacked, 20% had to close their doors permanently.  We have seen the malware devastation here in Columbia, MO and surrounding areas increasing in frequency over the last few years.  If you aren’t making the investment to protect your business from ransomware, you should be.  The odds are not in your favor.

Ransomware typically infects your network via 2 ways – email attachments and infected websites. We have seen even the most knowledgeable business owners and employees click on infected email attachments.  Cyber criminals are very good at what they do . These emails will look almost identical to an email you might be expecting.  They also like to send them late in the day when you are rushed and trying to leave work.  Educating yourself and employees on how to identify infected attachments is of high priority.  But, employee education alone won’t protect your business.

Other ways to protect your business:

  • Have a good firewall configured and installed by a security expert.  A good firewall that is setup correctly will prevent 90% of malware.  Unfortunately, not all firewalls are easily configured which is why we recommend a security expert.
  • Install good anti-virus and anti-malware technologies and keep them up to date. Many businesses are infected because they do not keep the security software up to date after installation.
  • Have a reliable backup and data recovery system in place. It backups should be performed frequently and tested periodically.  If you have not tested your backup personally with your IT administrator, assume it’s not working.  Not all malware is preventable and you will be relying on your most recent backups to restore your entire network.  If you unknowingly don’t have a working backup, your business is jeopardized.  You will sleep better at night knowing you can recover your entire network from the cloud within minutes or hours rather than days, weeks or never.
  • Make sure all the software on your system is up to date. This includes the browser, the operating system and all of the plug-ins. Cyber criminals frequently exploit software vulnerabilities. Have your IT Provider/IT Administrator periodically give you reports to confirm the updates are being performed.
  • Hire a knowledgeable IT expert.  We recommend outsourcing as you will get a team of experts. It is very hard to find one IT Administrator who has the expertise in all areas such as networking, security, email, cloud technologies and IT support.  Often times, outsourcing will also be less expensive.

If you would like further information on how our business can protect your business from a ransomware attack, please contact 43Tc IT Services.  We have spent the last 20 years protecting businesses of all sizes across multiple industries worldwide.  Our wealth of knowledge can help keep your business in business.