October 27, 2021
Local Cybersecurity Nightmares
You’ve heard about Colonial Pipeline, JBS Foods, and countless more. A huge cybersecurity story hits national news at least weekly.
Local cybersecurity horror stories are also on the rise. Here is just one:
“I can’t access my data. Could you check on it?”
A small business called us because ransomware had taken over their data, encrypting everything. None of the 12 people on their team could access any data or get any work done for 3 days. The bad guys asked for a ransom, but we would not give it.
We restored the data from a backup, but, no one could reimburse them for the hundreds of lost man hours—which translated into thousands of dollars of lost revenue.
Hundreds of other stories abound. You don’t hear about them because . . . can you guess? When we help a business leader mop up a cybersecurity nightmare, one of the first things we hear is, “How canI keep this low? Do I have to tell anyone? I don’t want people to find out that we were compromised.” In many cases, state laws require you to report such incidents. But when not required to report, people work hard to keep things mum.
Playing with lax cybersecurity protections is like playing with matches: don’t do it! There are new threats on the scene, and you need to employ new protections. Please call us; we can help! We’d be happy to talk with you about reasonable protections and plans you should employ against malicious actors worldwide who are working 24/7/365 to access the treasure trove of data held within your network.
