Is your business prepared for a Cyber Attack? The frequency and intensity of cyber attacks is increasing so it’s vital that all sized businesses understand the ramifications of not being prepared for a Cyber Attack. While you may understand how a Cyber Attack can harm your business, it’s also important to be aware of the hidden costs of a ransomware, cryptohacking or cryptojacking attack.
With more employees working remotely and home, it’s vital that your data is totally protected and secure 24/7, 365 days a year. Gaps may occur though; especially with small and medium organisations. Your organisation’s plans, policies and strategies in case a Cyber Attack does occur must be reviewed regularly. But if you’re running a ‘tight ship’ financially, this can often slip down the list of business priorities. Since 2002, Arrow has helped thousands of small and medium businesses protect and secure their data and information.
The 4 hidden costs of a Cyber Attack all businesses must be aware of
Did you know that if a Cyber Attack threatens your small or medium business that the ransom is only a tiny portion of the total cost of the attack? When you’re weighing up if it’s worthwhile outsourcing your data and security to IT professionals, it’s important to consider the following hidden costs.
1. The ransom amount required may not match the damage caused
When your business is trying to project the overall cost of a Cyber Attack, it’s important to keep in mind that the demanded ransom amount will often be less than the costs associated with cleaning infected computer and data systems.
2. Paying a Cyber Attack ransom may not guarantee immediate data recovery
If you end up paying a ransom due to a Cyber Attack, it’s important to understand that this won’t necessarily guarantee immediate data recovery. Even if you get the decryption keys you’re promised, there will still be a minimum length of time to recover and restore all your information and data.
3. Cost of downtime to your business during and after a Cyber Attack
If a Cyber Attack affects your business, you won’t be able to have a ‘business as normal’ approach. The time it takes to respond from a Cyber Attack represents lost business opportunity and an inability to deliver services and products. There are other costs associated with downtime as well. For instance, the longer your IT and security staff work on fixing the issue, the longer they are away from tasks that they would otherwise be doing.
4. Supplier and third party costs of a Cyber Attack to your business
If a Cyber Attack affects your business, an often-overlooked cost is to your suppliers and other third parties. A Cyber Attack can have a ‘trickle down’ effect that can have a broad impact on your stakeholders, supply chain and business partners.
Why your business could be at risk from cryptojacking
One of the latest cyber security threats, cryptojacking happens when someone gains unauthorised access to a computer to mine cryptocurrency. This process occurs when:
This snippet of code can lead to further security breaches and affect computer systems with personal data and work being lost. One of the only signs that you’ve been a victim of cryptojacking is that the performance of your computer becomes slower or lagging with execution of tasks.
Research suggests that cryptojacking is only going to increase with estimates in November 2017 by Adguard of a 31% growth rate over one month. With 33,000 websites affected in one month alone, this represents over 1 billion monthly visits.
How to protect your business against ransomware attacks
Can you remember the recent WannaCry ransomware attack that affected over 200,000 organisations in 150 countries? The WannaCry ransomware attack used a flaw that the National Security Agency (NSA) had found in Microsoft Windows software. According to Cert Australia “ransomware is a type of malware that locks your computer, system or network until you pay a fee. After the initial infection, the ransomware attempts to spread to shared storage drives and other accessible systems. If the demands are not met, the system or encrypted data remains unavailable, or data may be deleted.”
This malicious software blocks access to data with victims receiving messages demanding payment to have the information unscrambled. The price to do so typically increases over time until a countdown starts signalling when the files will be destroyed. Regrettably there is no guarantee that when your business makes the ransom payment that you’ll get access to the files again. One of the best ways to protect your business against ransomware attacks is for your files to be backed up with a totally separate system. This ensures that if your business does get a ransomware attack, information won’t be lost to the hackers.
It’s important to note that antivirus software alone will not be effective to stop a ransomware attack on your business. Ransomware can infiltrate computer systems via compromised websites and emails. For instance, one of your employees could receive an email that appears to be from a manager. When they open the link they’ve been requested to open, it could send them to a malicious website set up to download some malware onto the computer.
Arrow’s AV Defender has been developed using the Award-Winning Bitfender® Internet Security Platform and features:
Why computer downtime can be catastrophic for your business
Because modern business depends so heavily on computers, any downtime can be financially devastating. Immediate short term effects will usually not affect long term financial results, however lost productivity as a result of computer downtime can affect long term profits. Financial costs resulting from computer downtime can vary with the financial damage being felt for years after it occurred.
The most common effects of computer downtime include:
To ensure your business doesn’t suffer the negative impact of computer downtime, it may be time to consider outsourcing your IT to a reputable Australian owned business. Arrow has helped thousands of Australian businesses with protecting their computer security since 2002.
How data protection and security can safeguard your business against Cyber Attacks
Did you know that legacy antivirus solutions are not enough to protect your business against cyber attack? Arrow offers multiple solutions for small and medium businesses to prepare for a possible cyber attack Since 2002, Arrow’s highly trained and experienced IT experts have helped thousands of small and medium businesses prepare for a cyber attack. By taking the time to formulate a plan of action, you have peace of mind that if a cyber attack does occur, your business will be okay.
Having reliable and secure backups for your data is essential for your business to survive a cyber attack. Our state of the art security monitoring tools ensure that any ransomware attack can be stopped. It’s important to note that ransomware attacks may just be a ‘smokescreen’ for a broader security data breach in your business. Our experts ensure your business doesn’t have any other breaches occurring by monitoring all aspects of any ransomware attack.
To significantly reduce costs, our comprehensive data protection offers Australian businesses up to 80% of support that can be completed remotely:
The best way to prepare your small or medium business against Cyber Attacks
The threat of cyber attacks on all sizes of businesses will only increase. And while it may be tempting to push the issue to one side because you’re busy, it may not be the best solution for your long-term business success. Since 2002, Arrow has helped thousands of small and medium Australian businesses with tailored cyber security solutions. As one of Australia’s largest privately owned telecommunications companies, our highly trained and experienced team of IT specialists and cyber security experts can help protect your business. Find out we can protect your business against cyber attacks. Call us today.
