British businesses warned to stay vigilant in the face of Ransomware attacks

A new report from security watchdog SonicWall has confirmed that the threat of Ransomware is greater than ever in the UK and that British businesses in particular should sit up and take note, with over 38 attacks every day on UK based companies and organisations.

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a form of malware which locks away a victim’s files and then requests payment to have them returned. Ransoms are paid through a digital currency such as Bitcoin, which allows for highly encrypted and anonymous transactions. While a ransomware attack can be a nuisance for individual computer users, for businesses the repercussions can be far greater. A loss of sensitive data, particularly that of clients and customers can lead to serious damage to reputation and financial losses. In order to protect themselves from Ransomware, businesses should work closely with IT security specialists to ensure that systems are updated with the latest software, patches and firewalls and that they have access to offline backups of their data should the worst happen, and they fall victim to a ransomware attack.

An everchanging threat

According to the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, while the overall number of ransomware attacks has dropped, the severity of those attacks has increased. They state that the nature of ransomware is changing everyday with more than 2,500 completely unique strains of ransomware spotted in the last year, as hackers try and find new ways to exploit their victims. The report also goes on to say that businesses who run systems such as Microsoft Edge, Apple TV, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and memory regions are likely to be the most susceptible to attacks.

Here at ECL we have extensive experience in protecting businesses against the latest malware, computer hacks, viruses, spam, phishing scams and other threats and can advise you on the best methods of protecting your business. We can also help businesses to update their systems to run the latest and most secure version of Windows available. For more information please, please call us on 01268 575300 or email us on info@ecl.co.uk.