The DarkSide attacks the pipeline - could you be hit with Ransomware next?

The DarkSide takes down the Colonial Pipeline - could you be hit with Ransomware next?

Yes. Yes, you could be.

The DarkSide might not be coming for you, but another hacker is coming for you and your business. Especially if you're a small business.

Here's the thing you need to know - hacking groups such as the DarkSide, REvil, and CLOP are opportunistic. That means they want to make an easy buck by attacking an easy target. Think of it as thieves looking for backdoors to houses that are unlocked and the residents are away. It's dark, no one's home, the door's unlocked, and the thief enters and snags everything valuable he can walk away with.

All it takes is one click on one phishing emails and you could get a bad case of ransomware.

Ransomware is more brutal than ever. Not only do you lose access to all your data because the bad guys encrypted it, they also stole a copy of all of your data. If you don’t pay up fast, they’ll leak your sensitive information.

How ransomware cripples your business

• Your data was most likely stolen; now you have a data breach to deal with.
• You might not recover your data. Not all ransomware is created equal. Some hackers. take your $$$ and never give you the key to decrypt and recover your data.
• Time lost trying to recover data.
• Money spent trying to recover data.
• Customers turned away while trying to recover data.
• Your reputation will suffer, and that means less business.
• Money spent on legal fees associated with the incident.
• Money spent on incident response experts to investigate and remediate the incident.
• Money spent on data breach notification requirements as required by state law.

Ransomware season is coming. Ransomware spreads like fire in the summer, so keep your eyes peeled for those tricky phishing emails and think before you click. 

Did you know I offer a cybersecurity essentials package? This package is right sized for small businesses and helps protect them from 80% of cyber attacks, including ransomware.

If you'd like to learn more about this package, or learn how ransomware could affect you book a complementary discovery session, and we can chat about what keeps you up a night.