A Small Business Owner's Guide to Understanding and Preventing Ransomware

How much would you be willing to pay to keep all of your business’ records from being locked away, or to keep them off the dark web? Hundreds? Thousands? More?

This is precisely what cybercriminals rely on when they infect businesses just like yours with ransomware. Let’s talk about ransomware a bit: what it is, why it’s so effective, and (most importantly) how to keep it from dragging your business down.

The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Ransomware

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that infiltrates your network and encrypts your data. Once your data is inaccessible to you, the attacker offers to provide the decryption code for an incredibly steep price.

While this may seem like a cost of doing business—an infuriating one, for sure, but almost to be expected—we need to resist this impression. Things like utilities, rent, and office supplies count as costs of doing business. A ransomware payment is more akin to a business rolling over and rewarding the crime taking place, and for what? Not only are you bankrolling future ransomware attacks, you’re signalling that you’re a susceptible target… and there is absolutely no guarantee that your data will be restored, either.

Unfortunately, many businesses overlook these crucial facts, inadvertently playing into an attacker’s hands. As a result, numerous businesses have experienced the following impacts, and many more will in the future.

Why Ransomware Works as Well as It Does

Make no mistake—ransomware is a scary thing to deal with. There are huge consequences to falling victim to an attack, including:

• Downtime - Without access to your data and IT, many business functions become impossible. As a result, you cannot operate and start hemorrhaging money. 
• Data Loss - Files are often corrupted, left encrypted, or only partially unlocked, even if payment is received.
• Reputational Damage - Once word gets out to your clients that their data was compromised while it was under your care, many will seek out an alternative business to work with.
• Financial Damage - Typically, the culmination of the other three consequences causes many businesses to fail financially, often resulting in their demise due to a ransomware attack.

How Can Ransomware Be Beaten, or—Better Yet—Prevented?

There are several measures every business should take to mitigate the impact of ransomware. For instance:

Backup Preparations

A good data backup is perhaps the best defence against ransomware. After all, vanilla ransomware is rendered useless if you’re able to simply delete your encrypted files and restore a clean copy from your backup. Make sure you follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule and keep at least three copies, stored in at least two different storage formats, with at least one copy safely offsite in a secure cloud. 

Multilayered Security

Consider how many nowadays protect their homes. In addition to locks, many have added camera systems, alarms, and so on to make breaking in that much less simple or appealing. Businesses can enhance their physical security in similar ways, as well as their digital security through measures such as firewalls, email filtering, and endpoint protection.

Training a Human Firewall

Businesses also have an entire team that—if properly trained—can transform from a security liability into a legitimate security force, ready to detect phishing emails and report other anomalies that often indicate security issues.

Turn to Us for Help

At Horne & Benik, we all assume the role of a member of your team, doing everything we can to make your security and potential recovery needs as reliable as possible. We’ll manage a layered security suite on your behalf and ensure your business continuity and disaster recovery preparations can get you back up and running in minutes or hours. Overall, we’ll treat your business as though it is our own. We’ll even do what we can to help your team be as aware of security as possible. 

Don’t wait until you’re reading a ransom note… be proactive about protecting your business and give us a call at (603) 499-4400 today!