Ransomware spreads across Europe. You never know when it can attack. How to defend?

Let’s repeat it once more. Protect your data. We bet that the leaders of Ukraine airport Odessa and Kiev Metro regret not paying enough attention to data protection, now. But once a ransomware is inside the system it is very difficult to get it out. And expensive. You can either pay the ransom or an IT magician who will get rid of the virus. But actually it is quite easy (and not that expensive) to protect the company data from such attacks.

What is going on?

Well, someone probably opened an email attachment that he shouldn't have. Thanks to that the ransomware known as “Bad Rabbit” attacked computer systems in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Germany. It encrypts company data on the computer so you can’t access it until you pay the ransom. But not even then you can be sure that the author of the virus will really put it down and leave your data alone. These who have good antivirus are quite protected. All the others should start protecting themselves right away. Ransomware in your computer is not fun at all. It always costs a lot of money and effort to get rid of it.

First aid

Stop the spreading as quickly as possible. And because it spreads through the network, the best is to immediately disconnect from the network. Once the virus is downloaded from the network to the computer it encrypts the data even without network. That is why it is the best to turn off the computer. The backups can help as well. Still the virus encrypts the data but you can restore them from the backups. Nevertheless, it is difficult and expensive process.

Solution

The only good solution is to protect your computer with an antivirus that protects data from ransomware. It is also great to train your employees in data security. The most common situation is that the ransomware attacks the computer when an employee clicks on an infected untrustworthy email attachment, fake link, etc.

Protect your data

What is the value of your documents, personal data of customers or business plans for the next year? You would be surprised how many companies are still not protecting their data. Despite the fact that data leak costs a company USD $4,3 million  on average. Still companies are protecting themselves insufficiently or not at all. And then the outcome is that 80 % of companies experienced data security incident last year.

The antivirus is not enough for all threats

Sensitive data is much more valuable than the ransom you'll have to pay to make the infected devices accessible again, or the amount of money for difficult cleaning of the devices. You should protect your data not only from external, but also from internal threats. The most common vector of data leaks is a simple human error. Whether it's opening of an infected email attachment, or sending an email with all the business contacts to someone else by mistake. There are many ways how data can leak from your company. The only reliable protection is a DLP (Data Loss Prevention) software together with a good antivirus and firewall.

Do you want to be ready and protect your data? Let us know about you and we will advise you how.

I’ll contact you!