Alarming Statistics on Ransomware Small Businesses Should be Aware of
As all experts may agree, ransomware is somewhat unpredictable. Due to this unpredictability concern, it becomes relatively hard to prevent attacks. As such, this culminates in rising statistics on ransomware threats that aren’t showing signs of slowing down. Amid these developments, small businesses face a myriad of challenges when employing security software to deal with increasingly sophisticated attacks.
Undoubtedly, a successful attack is likely to bring productivity to a halt. Equally, these network breaches tend to affect a firm’s profits adversely. Consequently, savvy business leaders prioritize network security in their organizational structure to avert ransomware concerns.
Overview
Ransomware is a harmful software intended to block access to your computer system until you pay an amount of money to hackers. It’s increasingly becoming a significant issue because even payment of the “ransom” doesn’t guarantee the return of your data. Thus, affecting the business entity extensively.
Often, small businesses are easy prey because they hold raw data. Besides that, they frequently lack the security framework to avert malware threats as compared to their larger enterprise counterparts.
Cybercriminals commanding malicious web bots can infiltrate an enterprise’s cybersecurity systems. As such, credentials, financial information, obtain industry secrets, disseminate malware, can be stolen and cause adverse downtime in your business activities.
Let’s take a look at some alarming statistics on ransomware that have the potential to wreak havoc on your bottom line.
Recent Ransomware Statistics
According to MSPs worldwide survey (2019) study, the leading causes of ransomware infections were phishing scams. With a substantial number of respondents mentioning that their end-users felt the adverse effects of the CryptoLocker ransomware strain in 2019.
In a recent SBA survey, a considerably large number of small enterprise owners also perceive their businesses as vulnerable to hackers. Primarily, a substantial proportion of these organizations don’t have an adequate budgetary allocation for robust IT security infrastructure. Correspondingly, they also lack proficient personnel to manage the resources.
As a small business owner, your business is at risk of these statistics on ransomware if you do not employ any ransomware protection measures.
What Ransomware prevention measures can you apply?
Update your security software regularly—Ensure all your Tampa IT support security software is up to date. Always check if your anti-malware programs are running correctly and if they are up to date. Accordingly, you can set them to an automatic update state.
Fundamentally, you should run each application you install or download through these safety nets parallel to antivirus protection.
Whereas a software update might not stop a new malware attack, it nonetheless keeps you up-to-date with the latest protections and can, therefore, easily recognize malicious files and phishing sites.
Sign up to an online backup application—Signing up for an online data backup service is essential for your small business. Indeed, you can find backup applications at an affordable annual cost. Some excellent backup services provide adequate cover for all your files regardless of devices in use or location of assets.
Conversely, in case of a security breach, you can clear your existing business data and restore it from your last clean backup. Although repairing lost data may cost you time, it’s better than taking chances and trusting a hacker to un-encrypt your files even after you’ve paid them.
Upgrade your operating systems—Your business should always run on the most up-to-date operating system version. Frequently, hackers are actively on the lookout for older systems that they can readily compromise. Turning on the automatic updates on your operating systems will support you keep track of subsequent upgrades.
Scan incoming and outgoing emails—Quite often, many cyber-attacks happen through e-mails. As a standard procedure, avoid opening or installing a suspicious program attached to your email. Also, never follow unsolicited web links in the e-mails sent to you.
As well, you may contemplate including an alert to all externally sent emails to remind your users of the underlying danger that lies in clicking on links and opening suspicious attachments.
Train your employees—As a savvy business owner, your employees need to have the right knowledge on how to identify the ransomware danger. On that account, the best solution may entail having a training program.
Contact Tampa Bay Tech Solutions for Ransomware Prevention
Do you require managed security services or IT support in Tampa to prevent ransomware attacks? We are an IT Company in Tampa offering Data Backup Services, and IT support. Contact us today for all your ransomware protection services.