Technology Advisor Blog

Big businesses make the headlines but small businesses are NOT immune to Cyber Attacks!  

Industry leader Datto surveyed over 2400 IT professionals who deal with ransomware and other cyber threats every day, and the results are something every SMB needs to be aware of.

From 2016 to 2018 there has been a 79% increase in ransomware attacks.  35% of IT pros reported multiple attacks for the same SMB in the same day.  Only 1 in 4 attacks are reported, so the news is not making it to the general population.  The cloud and Apple products are NOT immune.  The average cost of the downtime associated with an attack is $46,800.  

One of our missions at Ekaru is to help SMBs create a technology roadmap and we recommend that you download the Ransomware Report to get started. We highly recommend sharing these statistics with your team to raise awareness in your organization.  Ongoing training is one of the key components to help keep your business safe.  Also, please ask about new technologies you can put in place to help safeguard your business.  Antivirus and firewalls are no longer enough to protect against advanced threats, and if you haven't completed a security risk assessment in the past year, now is the time!

Keep your data safe!

Cyber threats are real and they're local.  Major corporations like Marriott make the big headlines, but too many smaller businesses and institutions think they're "under the radar".  Attacks are widespread and they're automated.  The average firewall is getting hundreds of thousands of intrusion attempts per month, over 50 ransomware attempts, and twelve phishing attempts.   All it takes is ONE user clicking on ONE wrong link and a lot of damage can be done.

Recently Cape Cod Community College was hacked for over $800,000.   In this particular case, a user opened an email that looked like it was from another college, and the user didn't have any suspicions at first.  What they didn't know, was that malware targeted their financial transactions.  The college worked with the FBI and were able to get some of the funds back, but this is actually quite rare.  The college is beefing up their cybersecurity protection now, but waiting until disaster strikes will help next time, but can't undo the damage incurred in this attack.

Working with hundreds of local businesses, we've seen a big increase in the number of threats this year, and we're advising everyone in our community to review all the risks, and make informed decisions about the level of protection needed.  The protection in place over the years (Firewall, Antivirus, Security Patch updates) just isn't enough to protect against the latest threats.  More tools are available to SMBs and the first step is to understand the risks involved.  The level of protection you had in the past is not enough.

"Cybercrime is now larger than all other forms of organized crime put together"  Michael George, Continuum Navigate.

A business class firewall is one of the most important layers of protection against intrusions, and we recommend Sonicwall, recognizedas the leader for SMB protection, but that's just one layer of protection.

Globally, the SonicWall Capture Threat Network, which includes more than 1 million sensors across the world, recorded the following 2018 year-to-date attack data through October 2018 including  a 117 percent increase in the number of ransomware attacks.

• 9.2 billion malware attacks (44 percent increase from 2017)
• 3.2 trillion intrusion attempts (45 percent increase)
• 286.2 million ransomware attacks (117 percent increase)
• 23.9 million web app attacks (113 percent increase)
• 2.3 million encrypted threats (62 percent increase)

In October 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced:

• 1,756 malware attacks (19 percent decrease from October 2017)
• 819,947 intrusion attempts (17 percent increase)
• 57 ransomware attacks (311 percent increase)
• 8,742 web app attacks (185 percent increase)
• 152 encrypted threats (12 percent increase)
• 12 phishing attacks each day (19 percent decrease)

For more information, read the full Sonicwall Report. 

We want everyone in our community to fully understand the changes in the threat landscape and what can be done to help better protect your business.  Call us to schedule a time to review your current level of protection so you can understand  the protections you have in place, and where there may be gaps that need to be considered.  There is no such thing as 100% security, but understanding the risks and making an informed decision about the level of risk you can tolerate is critical for protecting your business. 

Disaster recovery is a basic element of good business continuity planning. You've probably heard the phrase and like many businesses, it's something you'll get around to "later". 

Business continuity planning refers to the broad range of plans created so that a business can continue to be operational no matter what negative event might occur. Business continuity planning addresses severe, catastrophic events, loss of a key employee, director, or other principals in the organization, severe natural disasters that incapacitate a physical location, employee mistakes, and insider threats, etc. Basically anything that can go wrong!  Disaster recovery planning is one piece of this broad planning. Specifically, disaster recovery plans refer to how to quickly recover from some event that compromises your IT infrastructure.