Ransomware - Are you protected? Do you have a plan?

 Ransomware is a type of malware that infects your computer, encrypts all your files, and then a ransom is demanded to decrypt all of your information if you want it back. The ONLY way you can get your files back is to pay the ransom. Who is to say the person that was malicious enough to send you such a virus would honor their end of the deal and decrypt your files? 

 If you have watched the news, you have seen the massive disruption the Colonial Pipeline attack caused and the $4.4 million ransom that was demanded of the infrastructure. What if you were put in that position with your own files or your business information? Are you ransomware ready? 

 The average cost of ransom per incident is increasing by the year – right now it is over $8,000 for incidents and typically an attacker goes through your documents to determine how much you might be willing to pay to get all your files back. It could be significantly more or less depending on the attacker. That does not include the money you might be losing during downtime during the incident and the cost to get assistance to recover from the incident as well. About 20% of the ransomware victims are small to medium sized business as well. 

 About 3 out of 4 of companies infected with ransomware were running current and updated antivirus protection. Not only do you have to have a good antivirus solution for your computers, but you also need to make sure you and users in your company are trained in basic security practices like identifying phishing emails. 

 Not only do you need to ensure your users are trained to help prevent infections, but you also need to make sure you have a plan for when you do get infected, and your files get encrypted. The best method for defending yourself from ransomware is to always ensure you have a current local and online backup of all your files. If you do get infected by ransomware, you can always restore from a backup be it a local backup or a cloud based one. It is important to have both! 

Freestyle Computers provides a monitored local and cloud-based encrypted backup solution to its customers for a monthly (or annual) subscription for the highest level of safety. In the case that you or a user in your company ever gets infected by ransomware you can skip the ransom payment and get back to business potentially saving you or your company thousands of dollars. Have you ever tested your backup system or done any sort of restore? When was the last time you checked it was working? Some people think they can just set it up, leave it, and forget it. Sometimes it works that way but are you willing to potentially risk your data? We offer free advice and can even look at what you currently have to ensure you are safe regardless of if you are using our product or not.