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Friday 17 June 2016

'Alarming' rise in ransomware puts Businesses at risk

The Risk of of Ransomeware

    

The BBC reported recently an Alarming' rise in ransomware, with more than 120 separate families of ransomware in circulation.

Other researchers have seen a 3,500% increase in the criminal use of net infrastructure that helps run ransomware campaigns.

"Ransomware and crypto malware are rising at an alarming rate and show no signs of stopping," said Raj Samani, European technology head for Intel Security. Ransomware samples seen by his company had risen by more than a quarter in the first three months of 2016, he added.

 What is ransomware and why should you care?


Ransomware is a type of malware developed to block access to files and directories, typically using encryption until a fee is paid. The impact can be serious and even paying the demand is no guarantee of recovery of the data. The opportunity to extort money is driving the growth in ransomware software development and in turn increasing the risks to computer users.

Ransomware is typically delivered via email. Many of us think we can spot non-legitimate emails from poor English or unusual requests, but the latest spear-phishing techniques use highly targeted emails, producing professional looking results.  In fact these emails are so convincing, that when compared with a typical marketing email campaign which might result in 1 in 4 of emails being opened, and 3.5% click through, spear-phishing can achieve a 3 in 4 open rate and a further 50% click through!

Read and click through rates are so high because these email  contain specific personal or business details which create an image of authenticity, details typically captured from social media sources and background research by the attackers. The emails have sufficient information to make people believe they are credible.

Worryingly, Spear-phishing is typically the first phase of a sophisticated multi-phase attack on an organisation.

So what to do to protect your business? 


Awareness training is crucial for everyone receiving email in your company:
  • Up to date security and antivirus are critical but even then new, so called Zero Day exploits could get through
  • Make sure everyone is aware of the risk
  • Messages that originate from outside of the organisation (social media or email) asking for confidential data should be carefully considered before responding
  • It is also possible to receive emails which look to be from colleagues within the organisation, for example Managing Director to Finance Director requesting money be paid to a previously unused account.  By digitally signing emails within the organisation it is possible to quickly identify if an email is actually from the email address that it claims to be.
  • If you receive unsolicited communications from a contact or organisation do not click on any links and check the details carefully
  • hovering your mouse over a hyperlink will show the website url - does it look credible?
If anything looks off, ask someone from your IT department to take a look. There is no such thing as being over cautious!

Be Prepared for the worst


Ensure, before a potential the event, that your critical data is safe, and your business critical applications can be quickly recovered and restored.  Many organisations will maintain years of data of their servers, and either not back this up, or if they do, only retain the backup for a few days.  If infected with ransomware, documents and other data could be encrypted over a period of days or even weeks.  It can be a while before anyone notices that this has occurred, particularly if only data that is more than a couple of weeks old is encrypted first.  This means that even if organisations maintain backups for say 2 weeks, it can be longer than that before an issue is identified and then it may not be possible to restore the data from backup as this has also been encrypted by criminals.


Even organisations with a high level of vigilance can get caught out, however – it only takes one mistake! To ensure you are not literally held to ransom over your vital data, organisations need access to readily available copies of the data and applications that comprise their entire IT system, and this is provided by a new service called SystemFlip.

SystemFlip is a unique service that continuously backs-up your IT systems and data both locally and in the cloud retaining data for up to 7 years and making it available for restore or failover in seconds. With SystemFlip, the organisation can continue its operations without any interruption. To find out how your business could benefit from SystemFlip please contact us on 01225 808065 or visit us at www.systemflip.com



www.systemflip.com SystemFlip Continuous Recovery is for Organisations that cannot afford to be without their IT Systems.
Tags :

Friday 17 June 2016

'Alarming' rise in ransomware puts Businesses at risk

The Risk of of Ransomeware

    

The BBC reported recently an Alarming' rise in ransomware, with more than 120 separate families of ransomware in circulation.

Other researchers have seen a 3,500% increase in the criminal use of net infrastructure that helps run ransomware campaigns.

"Ransomware and crypto malware are rising at an alarming rate and show no signs of stopping," said Raj Samani, European technology head for Intel Security. Ransomware samples seen by his company had risen by more than a quarter in the first three months of 2016, he added.

 What is ransomware and why should you care?


Ransomware is a type of malware developed to block access to files and directories, typically using encryption until a fee is paid. The impact can be serious and even paying the demand is no guarantee of recovery of the data. The opportunity to extort money is driving the growth in ransomware software development and in turn increasing the risks to computer users.

Ransomware is typically delivered via email. Many of us think we can spot non-legitimate emails from poor English or unusual requests, but the latest spear-phishing techniques use highly targeted emails, producing professional looking results.  In fact these emails are so convincing, that when compared with a typical marketing email campaign which might result in 1 in 4 of emails being opened, and 3.5% click through, spear-phishing can achieve a 3 in 4 open rate and a further 50% click through!

Read and click through rates are so high because these email  contain specific personal or business details which create an image of authenticity, details typically captured from social media sources and background research by the attackers. The emails have sufficient information to make people believe they are credible.

Worryingly, Spear-phishing is typically the first phase of a sophisticated multi-phase attack on an organisation.

So what to do to protect your business? 


Awareness training is crucial for everyone receiving email in your company:
  • Up to date security and antivirus are critical but even then new, so called Zero Day exploits could get through
  • Make sure everyone is aware of the risk
  • Messages that originate from outside of the organisation (social media or email) asking for confidential data should be carefully considered before responding
  • It is also possible to receive emails which look to be from colleagues within the organisation, for example Managing Director to Finance Director requesting money be paid to a previously unused account.  By digitally signing emails within the organisation it is possible to quickly identify if an email is actually from the email address that it claims to be.
  • If you receive unsolicited communications from a contact or organisation do not click on any links and check the details carefully
  • hovering your mouse over a hyperlink will show the website url - does it look credible?
If anything looks off, ask someone from your IT department to take a look. There is no such thing as being over cautious!

Be Prepared for the worst


Ensure, before a potential the event, that your critical data is safe, and your business critical applications can be quickly recovered and restored.  Many organisations will maintain years of data of their servers, and either not back this up, or if they do, only retain the backup for a few days.  If infected with ransomware, documents and other data could be encrypted over a period of days or even weeks.  It can be a while before anyone notices that this has occurred, particularly if only data that is more than a couple of weeks old is encrypted first.  This means that even if organisations maintain backups for say 2 weeks, it can be longer than that before an issue is identified and then it may not be possible to restore the data from backup as this has also been encrypted by criminals.


Even organisations with a high level of vigilance can get caught out, however – it only takes one mistake! To ensure you are not literally held to ransom over your vital data, organisations need access to readily available copies of the data and applications that comprise their entire IT system, and this is provided by a new service called SystemFlip.

SystemFlip is a unique service that continuously backs-up your IT systems and data both locally and in the cloud retaining data for up to 7 years and making it available for restore or failover in seconds. With SystemFlip, the organisation can continue its operations without any interruption. To find out how your business could benefit from SystemFlip please contact us on 01225 808065 or visit us at www.systemflip.com



www.systemflip.com SystemFlip Continuous Recovery is for Organisations that cannot afford to be without their IT Systems.
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