We live in interesting times, that’s for sure. With the war in Ukraine in its second month, cyberattack risks are high all over the world. That’s usually the case, though, even in times of relative peace. Read on to learn more about protecting your network and data from cyberattack.
Understanding the Threat Landscape
According to a CompTIA article, Russian cyberattacks have increased in recent years. With the recent invasion of Ukraine, more are expected. Just recently, 74% of ransomware payments have gone to Russian actors. Cyberattacks can include malware, malicious software that can enter your system through a phishing email; ransomware, a particular type of ransomware that locks up a company’s data until the company can pay a large amount for its recovery; and distributed denial of service attacks, wherein a network is flooded with traffic from numerous computers. All of these types of attacks can result in downtime, depriving your company of revenue and putting your reputation at risk. What can your company do in the face of a seemingly inevitable attack?
Protecting Your Company from Cyber Threats
Cybersecurity involves numerous components related to people, processes and technology. Not only does a company need to maintain current anti-malware and antivirus protection and operating system patches, it needs to have an incident response plan in case of a major attack. This type of plan contains multiple stages and the initial stage of preparation can go a long way toward preventing and mitigating an attack. When drawing up your company’s plan, considerations include what will be done first in the event of an attack; where you will store data to keep it safe and allow your company to resume business; and what your communications team will share with customers, employees and the public. And how will you test your plan? A practice called “wargaming” will take your company through the stages of your plan. Once completed, the results can be analyzed and your plan fine-tuned to address any weaknesses.
Whatever the motives of cybercriminals attacks will happen; it’s a matter of when, not if. To ensure your business is prepared, contact us today.
