No matter how much you think your company is safe from a ransomware attack, know that there are always loopholes and they can lead to bigger holes if not taken care of properly.
The proverb below applies not only in the medical field, but here as well, and it goes like this, “Prevention is better than cure.”
There aren’t only one, but two types of ransomware attacks namely,
– Crypto Ransomware
– Locker Ransomware
Both are hazardous for your system and data. To know if you’ll be safe from the attack or not in future, here are 5 things you might be doing that can lead to a ransomware attack.
1) Not using strong passwords
According to Candid Wuest, who is a Threat Analysis at Symantec, using weak passwords is one of the main reasons leading to ransomware attacks.
People think choosing the words such as ‘computer’ or ‘password’ or even their agency/company’s name is slick, but it is the first thing that comes to any criminal’s mind when they are trying to break in your system.
Creating a strong password is to choose any name and then capitalize the first letter, use numbers between their full name and then use any expression mark such as an exclamation mark or a question mark. For example, Teyyep000Ad!
2) Not updating your software
This not only happens in small businesses or private computers, but even big businesses tend to ignore the notification that comes on their screen telling them to update their software. You might be busy at the moment, and you think you’ll update later, what’s the haste? However, the truth is, the more you click on the cancel button, the more you forget about it. Delaying the update is only a means of an invitation for cybercriminals to get a hold of your data. Make it part of your ransomware recovery plan to keep your software updated at all times.
When you suddenly remember you need to update and you have received a couple of e-mails that ask you to click for an update which is absolutely a scam, you do so and BAM! Ransomware gets to you!
So don’t delay the update, keep it up-to-date.
3) Not being always on guard against such attacks
Forgetting is one thing, but being careless for something that you know could get to you is a big thing and lead you to more significant problems.
As they say, if the pigeon closes its eyes due to the horror of the cat eating him, that doesn’t give him fewer chances of not being eaten. The cat is there, and the pigeon is there. The only thing that’s not there is the vision.
So keep your vision and senses awake, always be cautious and on guard against ransomware.
4) Using public Wi-Fi
Switchfast is an IT consultant and services provider; it surveyed over 600 full-time small business employees and found that 66% of the employees used the public non-VPN protected Wi-Fi for their work. This has proven to be another significant cause of ransomware attacks.
5) Not encrypting the info
“If the information is important to you, and you are planning to store it online, the biggest mistake you can make is not encrypting it *before* you store it in the cloud.
Trusting an online service to do a decent job of securing your information and not keeping it private can be a costly mistake. Ultimately the only person you can trust to do a decent job is yourself, so encrypt before you store your data online.”
Says Graham Cluley, Independent Computer Security Analyst at grahamcluley.com
