In a time where cyberattacks happen every minute of every day all across the country, most businesses continue to say “can’t happen to me!” But the problem with this mentality is that they—including many businesses around Philadelphia— are giving themselves false senses of security.
The cold reality is that cybercriminals today are trying even harder to break into your network. One clear example of the type of cyberattacks hitting businesses in the latest Samsam attacks on Atlanta (note this recent attack is very similar to those I had been warning about months ago).
What cyber criminals are doing differently now than before?
Instead of trying to attack your business from one angle—say by sending an official-looking email from the boss to Cheryl in Accounting asking her to look at an attachment or through the a recent Windows vulnerability that your IT Support team hasn’t gotten around to patching—cybercriminals are now targeting your entire business network all at once.
Let me repeat that—instead of focusing on one vulnerability they are looking at the problem of getting into your network more holistically. They are finding dozens—in some cases over a hundred—different vulnerabilities in hopes that one gets them in the door to your network and your data.
So instead of having to worry about simply keeping your patching up to date, or making sure your team has sufficient training to understand what the next phishing attack will look like, or that your firewall is doing enough to detect and block malicious traffic, you need a team that focuses on comprehensive security. Note: if you’re like most businesses too busy to keep track of whether you’ve been keeping up with security, consider a free cybersecurity assessment.
On top of more cyberattacks successfully penetrating local businesses in recent months, the volume of attacks have increased year after year—nearly doubling from 2016 to 2017 (with no signs of stopping in 2018).
While attacks on business have become more devastating from Q1 of 2018, not all businesses are impacted by malicious attacks in the same ways. In fact, those that approached cybersecurity that focused on ways to make users securely get their jobs done were nearly free from cyber events in the past year.
How are businesses successfully securing their networks?
They focus on crucial IT staff and IT infrastructure—the problem with most businesses that end up falling victim to ransomware attacks is that they think they’re safe, but aren’t really sure why.
Some may say that everything is in cloud and that the cloud keeps them safe (see my recent discussion on why the cloud isn’t always secure) and others simply are told by their IT guy or department that everything is covered, without sitting down and coming up with a security strategy that aligns security to their business objectives.
Whatever the case, most businesses fail to identify critical infrastructure, training and team qualifications needed to ensure your business doesn’t fall victim to increased attacks in 2018. Zog meets with clients to devise a comprehensive security roadmap to ensure your business is operating safely every minute that bad guys are trying to get in.
Their teams trust IT Support—one of the biggest reasons why businesses fall victim to some of the recent attacks is because users don’t trust or can’t rely on IT Support to help them when they really need it.
Even when IT teams say they’re around 24/7, most fail to respond to users for days after a problem ticket is submitted. The problem with this is that as time goes by, many of these users get disenfranchised from getting help with the help desk and resort to their own resolutions.
The problem with having your team trying to solve their own problems is that they often use non-standard (and insecure) ways to fix their issues. Nearly 50% of ransomware attacks are related to users downloading files onto business networks that were compromised. Do you really want your users trying to troubleshoot their own problems?
The Zog team is at the ready 24/7 able and ready to resolve issues quickly (99 % of issues resolved on the first call) and speaking your users’ language (i.e., we speak in your language, not a bunch of technical jargon).
They stay informed about the health of their networks—while most businesses simply assume that everything is working, businesses that successfully avert ransom attacks tend to be informed on how their network is performing. They ask for key performance indicators (KPIs) to comfortably know that security is being held a priority by their IT Support team. They inspect what they expect to ensure that their networks are secure and ready to stay virus free.
One of the easiest ways you can evaluate the state of your network security is by getting a cybersecurity assessment. Most security experts underscore that staying informed about your network risks and vulnerabilities and prioritizing network fixes to those issues is critical to eliminating your business security risks.
Is your business prepared for more sophisticated multi-dimensional attacks on your business network?
Contact Us TODAY for a free network security assessment.