Canadian businesses lost over $2 Billion to hackers in 2019

Certainly, it’s a start. Over the past few months, Microsoft has furiously pushed out a series of patches and security updates to reduce exposure of their software to hacking attempts, malware and ransomware and to better protect their users.

However, the urgency for higher levels of security has become even greater as hackers continue to find newer ways to infiltrate systems. This article highlights just one of the ways that hackers have found to circumvent traditional security methods:

In summary, hackers exploit a vulnerability in already approved drivers that are included with all Windows operating systems since 2009. It then disables your existing anti-virus and kidnaps your system. Then force you to pay a ransom to regain access to your system.

And if you don’t pay? They use public shaming and the release of sensitive information to leverage payment. There is more at stake than just money, consider the damage to your organization’s reputation, your daily operations and the risk of government fines.

Many organizations believe they won’t get hacked because they don’t have important information. The truth is hackers don’t discriminate.

Considering yourself as not important to hackers or that you don’t have any information that would be useful to steal is the cardinal mistake organizations make. Even stealing just name, address, and date of birth information can be problematic. With this information they can create profiles and with a combination of social engineering they can hack all types accounts including email, online banking or online shopping. And once they have that, they have control of your digital life.

Do you have a plan to handle cyber-attacks?

As the threats become more sophisticated, you need to have a comprehensive plan not only to protect your organization but in the event of a disaster, a recovery plan. Plans need to include increasing the complexity of passwords, password change schedules, implementing two factor authentications, restricting malicious scripts from running, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Does this sound complicated? Absolutely but it’s critical to your protection. And having a team that helps you to implement the right solution, manage threats/ attacks and assist in recovery if needed will not only reduce downtime but save you money as well.

Don’t become their next victim. Knowledge is Power! Please Share.

Information provided by Vishal Ramjuss - ACubedIT.