Companies Lose An Average of $200,000 On Cyberattacks

Cybercrime is a type of criminal activity that’s becoming increasingly prevalent these days. What’s even more worrying is that cyberattacks are set to cost companies all over the world as much as $5.2 trillion in just five years.

Cybercriminals love to target small businesses and 43% of online attacks are aimed at them. The problem is a meager 14% of these firms have made the effort to protect themselves against such attacks. If you are a small business owner, you need to prioritize information security.

IT experts guarantee that every modern company’s state of the art perimeters will be breached eventually. Therefore, for small businesses, it’s no longer about if these security threats will happen but when they will take place.

To make things worse, the results of cyber attacks rise and such incidents now cost small businesses an average of $200,000. About 60% of the businesses that were breached have gone out of businesses six months after they were attacked.

The number of occurrences of these cyberattacks has gone up as well with over 50% having of the total number of small businesses suffered a breach within the past year. Plus, 4 out of 10 small companies having suffered multiple cyberattacks.

Even though this is already the case, 66% of the executives of small businesses still think they won’t be targeted by cyber criminals. Moreover, six out of ten don’t have any cyber defense plan of any kind, which means there’s a great need for improved education and industry awareness.

The damage that is brought upon a compromised company becomes worse because it usually takes about 101 days before company owners and business operators detect that they were hacked.

The costs that these compromised businesses need to cover can also pile up quickly. Aside from the attorney’s fees and other ancillary costs that you have to deal with, you will also be faced with the issue of losing customer confidence and loyalty as well as business relationships.

There are 30.2 million small businesses in the U.S. right now. If they wish to be protected from most, if not all types of online threats, they need to set in place a comprehensive IT security strategy.

• Make backups and duplicates of files and data every day.
• A network firewall, anti-virus, and tools for information encryption should be installed and updated regularly. They will scan and counteract harmful programs and viruses, and keep sensitive data safe and secure.
• Employees should only be given access to files, folders, and applications they need to use to do their job.
• Staffers must be trained regularly, every three months at least, and inform them of the latest cybercrime trends and online threats.
• Test the ability of your employees to detect scammers. You should also check how they respond to fraudulent requests.
• Perform tests for ongoing vulnerability and conduct risk assessments on installed applications and computer networks.
• Install cyber analytic tools that could scan user accounts, applications, networks to detect and halt any suspicious activity before they spread.

Why Companies Need Threat Intelligence?

Please remember that cyber threats may come from internal and external sources. With the increasing number of sensitive data that businesses handle these days, the best cyber defenses today are multipronged.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and let our team of IT experts help you set up measures to protect your business from cybersecurity threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
https://spartantec-wilmingtonnc.business.site/

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

The Importance Of Cybersecurity

Why did cybersecurity become so important all of a sudden? Before, it was just something that tech savvy people worry about. In the corporate world, it was a task that was left to the IT department. Other believed that as long as their firewalls, anti-virus software, and encryption tools were set up and working, they could simply hand over their IT security to professionals and  concentrate on running their business.

Now, you are most likely aware that cybersecurity is not something that you can ignore. Unless you totally conceal yourself from the world’s media, you should know that hacks as well as data breaches always affect firms of different sizes. Usually, these incidents are massive enough to make the news, which causes irreparable damage to the firms involved. 

What Has Changed?

Basically, we are living in a much more technically advanced world than a decade ago. In case you need more convincing, think about the fact that the iPad has just been around since 2010 and the iPhone came out a few years before that. Meanwhile, the broadband speeds increased five times over the last decade, which made it possible for individuals and businesses to do much more online.

One good example of the change that this has facilitated is the emergence of document sharing, email that is available on each device, as well as databases accessible from almost everywhere. As the years go by, enterprises have boosted their deployment of business critical applications in the cloud, given that Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud was only introduced in 2006.

Improve Your Cybersecurity

Given all these, you should now know the importance of cyber security. What can you do to stand up against this growing threat? Here are a few ideas you need to consider.

Stay Informed

It is no longer fair or realistic enough to expect your IT department to eradicate every IT security risk. Several contemporary cyber security threats come from social engineering, exploits to the browsers, user mistakes, as well as other things that the tech teams could only do so much to protect you from.

Cybersecurity is something that everybody needs to pay attention to, and a large number of incidents are because of people disregarding mainstream advice not to click on suspicious links and securing their passwords.

Do More Than Just Install Anti-Virus

Anti-virus software is an integral part of the IT security methods that you need to have. But relying on that alone is not enough to protect you from today’s online threats. Technical teams require several other tools, solutions, and resources, and a few of them are quite costly. But, they are less likely to be as expensive as the price of clearing up after an online breach.

Get Insured

The sector that offers cyber insurance has boomed over the years and it is now something that firms of all sizes need to consider. Cybersecurity insurance is not just about protecting against the financial risk. In case your company gets hit by a breach, there will be a lot of damage that needs to be contained, and you might need the help of a team of IT experts as well as damage limitation specialists that your insurer could provide.

Don't wait for a security breach to happen. Find yourself a reliable team of IT experts who can help you set up safety protocols to improve your cybersecurity. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255

https://spartantec-wilmingtonnc.business.site/

New Ransomware Called TFlower Hacks Into Company Networks

Over the last two years, ransomware attacks have become increasingly common against businesses of all shapes and sizes.

While the attack vector saw a dip in popularity last year, this year it has come roaring back to the fore with several new strains of ransomware being developed and enjoying widespread use by hackers around the world.

One of the most recent entrants into the ransomware family is a new strain called "TFlower", which made its first appearance in August of this year (2019).  Since that time, it has begun seeing increasingly widespread use, so if this is the first time you're hearing about it, know that it likely won't be the last.

TFlower is introduced into company networks when hackers take advantage of exposed Remote Desktop services.  Once the hackers have a toehold inside a company's network, they'll use that machine to connect to and infect as many other machines on the network as possible. Like many similar forms of malware, TFlower attempts to distract infected users while it's encrypting their files.  In this case, it will display a PowerShell Window that makes it appear that some harmless software is being deployed.

While it's encrypting a victim's files, it connects to its Command and Control Server to keep the software owners apprised of its activities. Then it attempts to clear the Shadow Volume Copies and attempt to disable the Windows 10 repair environment. This makes it difficult, if not impossible to recover files via conventional means.  Note that it also attempts to terminate the Outlook.exe process so its data files can be encrypted.

When the software has done as much damage as it can do, it will litter the infected computer with a file named "!_Notice_!.txt" which explains that the computer's files have been encrypted and in order to get them back, you'll need to contact the malware owners at the email address provided for additional details.

Be sure your IT staff is aware, and given how this one is spread, check the security of your Remote Desktop services.

Call SpartanTec Inc. in Wilmington and let our team of IT experts help in making sure that your business is protected against potentially damaging online threats. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255

https://spartantec-wilmingtonnc.business.site/

New Ransomware Looks Like An Anti-Virus Installation

Dharma is a highly successful ransomware strain.

It recently has been made even more successful by a change in the way the hackers controlling it are deploying it.

The first part of their latest campaign remains unchanged.  They rely on well-crafted phishing emails to lure employees in.

The key difference, however, lies in the particulars of the newly crafted emails.

In a nutshell, the group has begun imploring email recipients to protect their systems by installing the latest antivirus software.  The emails include a helpful link to the antivirus, which of course doesn't point to antivirus software at all. Rather, it is the ransomware they're trying to deploy inside corporate networks.

Worst of all, the emails claim to be from Microsoft, one of the biggest, most recognizable and most trusted names in the industry. So, there's a good chance that at least one of your employees will take the bait. In a bid to be good, proactive employees, they will seek to install what they think is antivirus software.

Once they start the installation, the damage is done.  It will lock every file on the victim's system, demand ransom, and seek to spread itself to as many other systems inside your network as it can reach.

Raphael Centeno, a security researcher at Trend Micro had this to say about the new twist on the malware strain:

"As proven by the new samples of Dharma, many malicious actors are still trying to upgrade old threats and use new techniques.  Ransomware remains a costly and versatile threat."
As ever, the best way to guard against this type of threat starts with employee education.  Employees should not be in the habit of installing their own antivirus software in the first place, so a gentle reminder to that effect should go a long way toward limiting the threat, but it still pays to be very much on your guard.

Secure your email and your system with the help of an expert IT consultant from SpartanTec, Inc.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
https://spartantecwilmington.business.site