The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 32: Aug/Sept 2017 | Page 29
TECHNOLOGY
REVVED UP
How do you prevent yourself from being
another ransomware statistic?
By Richard Marsh, CEO of CIS
Hear the word GoldenEye and you’d be forgiven for thinking of Piers
Brosnan at his best. 007 racing to Russia in search of stolen access
codes for a devastating electromagnetic space weapon.
Fast forward 20 years and the action has
moved online, morphing into a game
of cat and mouse between hackers and
cybersecurity experts attempting to
prevent the breach of corporate networks
by hackers.
Today, Ransomware is big business and
a thorn in the side to organisations of all
shapes and sizes. Indeed, not a day goes
by without mention of further IT problems
in the press. Yet, for all the column inches
and WannaCry – the first large-scale
attack being seen as a global wake-up call
and warning to the world on ransomware
– many businesses just seem to have
ignored it and plodded on regardless.
With experts still putting the figure
for ‘unpatched’ IT systems at somewhere
over the 40m mark, even after Microsoft
released updates to protect outdated
computers still running Windows XP,
ignoring the issue is a mistake. The last
thing you want to be doing is needlessly
paying a ransom that could so easily have
been prevented.
So what can you do? Firstly, all
machines must be fully patched and up-
to-date with the latest Windows security
updates. Secondly, you must have an
appropriate level of anti-virus software in
place. Perhaps most important though
is having a disaster recovery strategy –
something many SMEs often overlook
and come to quickly regret.
Of course, when running a business
there’s often little time to manage IT
systems and with the best will in the
world it’s not something most SMEs feel
comfortable taking care of on their own
or even have the resources to manage
in-house. That’s why it makes sense
to take expert advice on deployment
of cybersecurity solutions and disaster
recovery planning. After all, do you really
know what you need and whether to go
for a private cloud based in a Tier 3 UK
data centre? And have you factored the
GDPR in your thinking?
If you are unsure on any of the
above then you should consider getting
help. Here the old adage still holds true:
prevention is better than cure.
Richard Marsh, CEO, CIS.
Email: [email protected]
CIS can provide you with a Security Assessment and take
corrective action to increase your security, helping prevent
ransomware taking hold of your business.
Call us on 01367 700555 for more information, or visit our
website: www.cisltd.com/ransomware
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017
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