The cyber security landscape continues to evolve at an astounding rate. In the past 12 months alone there has been a 715% increase in ransomware attacks. These ransomware attacks impact businesses every 11 seconds with 30% of all breaches impacting small businesses.
Attackers are organized, well equipped and agile in their approach to finding an open door to exploit systems and extract large ransoms. The average ransom a company pays has grown from £68K to £190K in the past 12 months alone and that number does not include any losses due to downtime.
Illustrated by several high-profile attacks in the UK with The Guardian newspaper, the Royal Mail as well as the NHS via one of their suppliers being attacked recently with Ransomware. The NHS saw affected services including patient referrals, ambulance dispatch, out-of-hours appointment bookings, mental health services and emergency prescriptions. The Guardian expects some critical systems to be back up and running “within the next two weeks,” a return to office work has been postponed until early February to allow IT staff to focus on network and system restoration. Clearly small businesses would struggle to cope with these challenges and still survive.
Cyber criminals use a variety of tactics, such as phishing attacks and malware to steal sensitive data, disrupt operations, and extort money. Cyber-attacks can result in significant financial losses, damage to a company's reputation, and legal liabilities. In some cases, they can even put a business out of operation permanently.
To protect against cyber threats, businesses should implement a variety of measures, including:
Updating software and security systems regularly: This helps to prevent vulnerabilities that cyber criminals may try to exploit.
Educating employees about cyber security: This can help to prevent employees from inadvertently falling victim to phishing attacks or other types of cyber scams.
Implementing strong passwords and two-factor authentication: Strong passwords and two-factor authentication can help to prevent unauthorized access to company accounts and systems.
Backing up data regularly: Regularly backing up data ensures that a business has a copy of its data in case it is lost or compromised due to a cyber-attack.
Seeking cybersecurity insurance: Cybersecurity insurance can help to cover the costs associated with responding to a cyber-attack, such as legal fees, public relations efforts, and data recovery.
It is vitally important for businesses to be proactive in protecting against cyber threats because the consequences of a cyber-attack can be so severe. Xgeneration can help you by auditing your current setup and implementing strong cyber security measures while proactively keeping you up to date and configuring using industry best practice to better protect yourself and your customers. Photo by Irham Setyaki on Unsplash