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Building on annual success Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 is set to highlight the growing importance of cybersecurity in our daily lives and look to empower everyday individuals and business to take cybersecurity steps by making cyber more accessible.
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"I'm a small business. Why would a ransomware gang be out to get me?" This is a question we hear a lot working with local businesses. Everyone sees the big cyber crime headlines in the news, most recently with Uber, and last year quite visibly with the Colonial Pipeline, but what many people don't realize is that half of these kinds of threats hit small businesses - the events just don't make national news. Why are so many small businesses impacted when there are bigger targets out there? It's Ransomware as a Service. What's ransomware as a service? You’re likely familiar with software as a service (SaaS) but ransomware? What does that mean?
First, let’s do a quick review of what ransomware is. It's a type of malware that holds the victim’s files and folders for ransom. This sounds like something out of a Tom Cruise movie, but basically a giant warning shows up on your screen with a ticking clock that says pay the ransom, or you won't ever access your files again. Most typically, malware gets on your computer network through human error with someone inadvertently clicking on the wrong link or opening the wrong email attachment (like a fake resume). The malware is deployed and encrypts network data, with a safe return of your data being promised when the ransom is paid. And with payments usually made through cryptocurrency, these crimes are can be committed anonymously. Cybercrime is big business!
The "Ransomware as a Service" business model was developed for criminal purposes to make it even easier for criminals to conduct crimes. Ransomware requires little effort to deploy with potentially big payouts. Criminals with little or no technical know-how can now blast out millions of emails to potential victims. All they need is a few mouse clicks to make a lot of money.
Ransomware as a Service
Tags: small business, small business technology advice., cybersecurity, ransomware, cybersecurity training
These days, office phones are basically computers on your network. VoIP stands for "Voice over IP", which is a fancy way of saying that the phones work over a computer connection, not the old standard phone lines we all used to have. Years ago, if you had small business with about ten employees, you may have needed to get at least five phone lines to make sure that at least half of your team could be on the phones at the same time. If a sixth call came in, that would end up getting a busy signal. With VoIP, you can have as many simultaneous calls as you want, and it all works over your Internet connection - no "phone lines" needed.
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