In 2017, it is both fitting and ironic that October would mark the beginning of Cyber Security awareness month. This year has transformed into a year defined by fervent protest, natural disaster and cyberattacks. It seemed as though on a constant basis, households and business owners in Miami all alike would wake up to another cyberattack . Some of the most high profile cyberattacks could be listed below:
- Wannacry is a strain of ransomware that was spread around the world, targeting hundreds of thousands of companies, most notably British Hospitals.
- Hackers had targeted over 140 million Americans in a security breach. The hackers were able to access credit card numbers, social security numbers, addresses and other personal information.
- The PC cleaning tool discovered that hackers were able to infiltrate the program and transmit user data for criminal use.
- Whole Foods
- In some locations, cyber attackers stole credit card information.
- Hurricane Scams
- Fake charities were taking advantage of those who wanted to give to hurricane victims. Meanwhile, on affected territories, fake companies, or people posing as federal agents, were scamming hurricane victims.
- Las Vegas Scams
- Homeland security has issued an alert telling people to avoid giving money to unverified charities. There are also orders to not open any suspicious emails relating to the shooting.
Considering all that has been happening in the world lately, it’s really easy to forget about protecting your Miami business data. But Ransomware as a service (RaaS) has transformed into a full business model. Meaning, it is more important than ever to have a disaster protection and data backup plan.
Looking forward to the rest of the year and beyond, here are some precautions that will make your business more secure for the next malware attack.
Secure Your Passwords
Our Miami IT Support experts are password security’s biggest advocates. As they may have mentioned time and time again, keeping your passwords in a safe location is a great way to prevent ransomware attacks. Be sure to keep your passwords on a secure file in your cloud and restrict access to anyone who wouldn’t need to know all of the passwords on the file.
Backup Your Data
Most experts agree that keeping a backup of your data is the best way to fighting against ransomware attacks. Backing up your data means that in the event of an emergency, the last saved copy of your data will always be handy, so you don’t lose vital company information. Experts say that it is important to back up your company’s data to an external device so that if your company becomes the victim of a ransomware attack, your data can simply be accessed from another device. Your data would be backed up on to one of our secure servers, if you were a client of Nerds Support, . That way if you have become a victim of a cyberattack, our Miami IT Support experts can take off the malware while you can resume your work on a different computer. Our 24/7 IT support experts backup client data every day. Our business IT support experts also check your files on a day-to-day basis to make sure any encryptions and malware doesn’t go into our secure servers. This ensures that your data backup and disaster recovery plan is implemented to its full potential.
Educate Your Employees
Teaching your employees on how to spot phishing emails is a great way to avoid ransomware attacks. As our Miami IT Support providers have said before, most ransomware attacks happen through email. When your employees know the difference between a company email and a malware email, you company is all the more secure. Below are some things that a business owner can tell employees not to do:
- Do not open emails from addresses that you don’t recognize
- Do not open emails with attachments that are labeled “.PDF.zip” or “.PDF.rar”
- Do not give company (or personal) information to any unprotected websites
Current employees and supervisors should also beware of rouge employees. Rouge employees are employees that break company rules in serious ways. These offenses can range from hacking other employee accounts to taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company. Tell-tale signs of a rouge employee include:
- Claims that the rouge employee can hack other co-workers
- The rouge employee knowing information that they shouldn’t know
- Suspicious online activity detected
A company should train all of its employees to know the signs of a possible cyberattack. A cyberattack can come from a rouge employee or a suspicious email. Therefore, if an employee that believes their company is receiving suspicious emails or a victim of suspicious activity, should report it immediately. Reporting it would mean the difference between keeping your company safe or becoming a part of a statistic.
Install the Proper Antivirus
While most antivirus software cannot fight against a malware they do not know about, antivirus software is still a great thing to have when fighting cyberattacks. Many experts say that another great tactic is to whitelist software. Whitelisting Software simply means that instead of banning different types of software, you list types of software that you want on your servers and your servers allow only the software that you approve of.
Hire an IT Support Miami Team That is Will Prevent Cyberattacks
Nerds Support’s Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans are some of the best in Miami. Our IT Support providers agree that having a business protection plan is one of the best things a business owner can do for their company. With recognition by MSPmentor and other high profile companies, we don’t settle for anything less than the best technology to combat hackers, malware and any type of disaster that a business can encounter. When you hire our Miami IT Support experts, you get more than just an IT team. You get a dedicated group of individuals who become part of your company and who want to keep your company safe as much as you want to.