Ransomware and Cyber Extortion is sadly very common and has seen explosive growth in recent years and recovering from a crypto-ransomware attack can be particularly painful (and expensive), especially if you do not have a cyber security strategy or managed service in place!
What Is a Crypto-Ransomware Attack?
A crypto-ransomware attack is where hackers can gain access to your system, copy your data to their servers and then encrypt your data and demand a large ransom, often in the form of bitcoins.
It is extremely expensive to recover from and is simply a matter of time before your business, and hence often your brand and its reputation may be impacted. It’s a very simple and highly lucrative crime, which does not require extensive IT knowledge and there are cyber-criminals stealing data and demanding ransoms all over the world.
The costs for a small business to recover from a ransomware incident are likely to be £1000-£100,000+ so it’s critical you reduce this risk. At GoodChoice IT, we ensure all of our customers have insurance and backups of all their data! If you have been hit by a ransomware attack and need urgent assistance, contact us for further advice.
How We Can Help If Your Business Has Been Targetted by Cyber Criminals
If your business has been targetted by cyber criminals who have demanded a ransom payment, we have a large number of cyber solutions to help prevent you from being a future victim again, and potentially help to limit the damage caused by any current cyber attacks.
How to Recover From a Crypto-Ransomware Attack
Some of our solutions to recovering your business and data from a crypto-ransomware attack include:
- Isolate infected devices from the network
- Call your insurance – if you have cyber insurance you should immediately notify your insurance provider for assistance
- Check your backups
- If you don’t have good backups and cyber insurance it’s unlikely that you will be able to recover, unfortunately. One option for very small businesses to consider is winding up the company and starting afresh to limit liability though this is a last resort
- Negotiate with the hackers – it may be possible to negotiate a ransomware payment. At the time of writing, this is not illegal in the UK. You will need to purchase bitcoin to pay them and there is no guarantee you will get any of your data back
- Rebuilding/Replacement of your systems: You will need to reinstall all your systems and ensure that firmware is fully updated (as we have seen malware hiding in the bios on the motherboard. To plan budgeting for this allow £300 per PC/Laptop We usually swap out the hard disk in case the original can be recovered at a later date. For rebuilding servers’ allow a budget of £2000 per server. NAS devices – swap disks or replace them. Also, switches/routers etc should have been factory reset and have the firmware updated
- Telling your customers – you will need to tell them about the potential loss of data – your insurer PR team will help if you have cyber insurance.
- Under GDPR laws you must inform the ICO within 72 hours of detecting the security breach
- Get cyber security protection as you are now a target to be hit again. You will need dark web monitoring and the next generation of antivirus monitoring. You should employ the services of a cyber risk consultant as well as a network security monitoring service
Speak to GoodChoice IT About CyberSecurity
If you’re looking for help with a recent crypto-ransomware attack or you want to put extra layers of security in place to protect the data of your business and customers, then talk to us today!
We’ve been providing IT security and cyber security services for businesses across the UK, predominantly in London and Surrey, for the past 15 years. We also offer a full range of managed IT services, from managed IT support to cloud computing services and data migration, as well as business broadband and telephone systems.