What is Ransomware – Why Businesses Should Take Action

Although technology has done wonders to the way in which businesses operate, it has also unfortunately brought with it new risks and challenges. One of these is ransomware, a term that you may be familiar with given the growing nature of threats in the modern age. We have explained more on this below, as well as why and how you and your business can take action against it.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of computer virus which will infect your computer and its files, and demand a ransom, or else it will begin deleting this data. Many security experts agree that it is the fastest growing type of computer virus, and so the importance of protecting against it cannot be overstated.

An example of ransomware in action is by scrambling your photos and videos, meaning you no longer have access to your personal files. Only by paying a ransom will the criminals allow you to view this data again. While this is a more personal example, there are more serious ramifications for businesses and their customers too.

How can you protect your business against it?

Despite the growing nature of this threat, there are also plenty of ways that you can help to protect against it too. We’ve covered just some of these below.

Managed antivirus solution

An antivirus solution is a great place to start. Ransomware is, after all, a virus. While virus software doesn’t offer 100% protection, and you will still need to ensure that your employees are educated in what they can or can’t do, it offers robust protection. We can remotely monitor this for you, to add an extra layer of protection to your system.

Web protection

Considering what we said above regarding employee education, web protection is also recommended too. Unfortunately, employee naivety is often a root cause of many virus and infections in businesses, and they can sometimes have serious consequences. Web protection adds another layer of defence to your systems, helping to prevent employees doing anything they shouldn’t, whether intentionally or not!

We would still consider sending your workers through some kind of IT security training too. The web is an ever growing network of technology, and having your employees staying ahead of the curve can be extremely beneficial to your business.

Recovering your data

Using the example that we touched on earlier where criminals can encrypt and scramble your photos and videos, data recovery can be the perfect solution to this. By backing up your data beforehand, should anyone lock you out of your files, you can simply download them again and sidestep the ransom.

Would you like to find out more about ransomware?

Don’t be alarmed by ransomware – as you can see from this article, there are clear ways to help prevent it. If you would like to find out more about safeguarding your business IT system, then please get in contact with us here.

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