No business is too small to be a victim of cyber crime. According to the latest data from GOV.UK, almost half of businesses (46%) and a quarter of charities (26%) report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Like previous years, this is higher among medium businesses (68%), large businesses (75%) and high-income charities (57%) – this was taken from the winter 2019 / early 2020 report. What is worrying is that cybercrime is increasing in frequency and sophistication.
It is sad to say that scammers have used the Corona-virus Pandemic as a way of taking advantage of vulnerable computer users, by sending emails that pretend to be from the UK government linking to websites that mimic official websites, in order to steal valuable data which, they could use to create false claims of support using the victim’s information, depriving them of vital support that they may have been entitled to.
Cyber-crime is a real threat, which often goes unrecognized by small business owners. Hackers know it is so, hence often pick Small businesses and charities expecting them to be an easier target. You might think your business is too small to be at risk. However, if you have sufficient quality data e.g. clients’ contact info, payment details, etc. you’re not too small.
You might be aware of recent major ransom-ware attacks affecting companies across the globe. British advertising agency WPP was reported to be among the affected UK companies. 61 NHS organisations were significantly disrupted by global ransom-ware attacks carried out in May 2017. Firms in Ukraine were one of the first to report ransom-ware issues, and BBC UK continues to report on cyber-attacks experienced by Ukraine. It is said that those attacks were not about money – instead, they were Russia’s attempts to destabilise the country. Whatever their motivation, however, global and local cyber-attacks create chaos in affected organisations – both large and small. What is frustrating is that most of them can be prevented.
The famous ‘Wanna-cry’, virus infects only machines running Windows operating systems. If your organisation uses Windows, and you do not update it regularly or you are not careful when opening and reading emails, you could be at risk. We strongly recommend that you migrate away from old versions of Windows that are no longer supported and outdated software as well. Failing to upgrade outdated software before it expires will make you more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Ransom-ware attacks disrupt IT systems by freezing users’ computers and demanding untraceable ransoms to be paid for restoration of data.
- To protect your organisation (outside of having sufficient IT Support):
- Run regular updates, migrate on time, do not
- put of the upgrades.
- Use firewalls and antivirus software.
- Be careful when opening and reading emails.
- Moreover, regularly back-up your data, so you can easily restore your files should you be affected. Bear in mind that succumbing to hackers’ demands does not guarantee files’ restoration.
If you believe your current security measures aren’t sufficient to protect your organisation, please get in touch. We have been helping our clients to prevent and deal with cyber security issues for over 21 years. To find out more visit out about our IT security Solutions visit here: IT Security. To contact us please call 0800 008 6181 now or use the contact form on our IT Security Page.