Business Data: To maintain data security in an enterprise, indeed, you must be concerned about the wave of data hijacking, which has grown with time.
If you believe that criminals cannot target your company, know that the issue is no longer exclusive to large companies these days.
After all, according to Kaspersky’s data, 42% of small and medium-sized businesses were victims of hacking attacks in 2016. Because of this, it is natural for managers to adopt changes to avoid damage to their organizations. After reading the article, you will know best practices to avoid losing confidential information, but first, understand why paying the ransom is a bad idea.
Understand Hacker Intent With Practice
Through viruses, called ransomware, criminals use malicious programs to capture confidential information, through encryption, either from the employees themselves or the company. Thus, they ask for a ransom, which exceeds thousands of realis, to return access to the captured data. Otherwise, they may threaten to delete your files.
Due to the practice, only hackers have access, and, therefore, any action to open or try to recover the infected file becomes ineffective. As if that weren’t enough, ransom requests are usually charged in bitcoins, the virtual currency that makes it impossible to track them, making hackers’ actions completely stealthy.
Know What To Do After A Data Hijack
If you are a victim, as soon as you notice the ransom message, quickly shut down all infected computers. Due to its rapid proliferation, it is natural that machines that share the same network suffer the same consequences. Therefore, it is necessary to resort to professionals specialized in IT to isolate the affected equipment. By quarantining, the group will analyze the case with greater caution and even restore the machines before the heist is completed.
Because of the concern about having access, it is common for us to react too soon, paying for the criminal group to release the information, especially if it is confidential. However, even if the criminals promise it, the payment does not guarantee to bring the data back. After all, they may very well take the requested amount and walk away with your relevant information, resulting in an even more significant loss for you. In addition, the payment makes companies indirectly encourage crime, causing the action to be replicated in more companies worldwide.
Find Out How To Prevent Yourself
It is necessary to take basic precautions to avoid situations that corporations usually neglect because they believe the problem will not happen. So pay attention to the steps below!
Be Careful When Accessing The Mailbox
Being one of the primary means of invasion, criminals use gimmicks to draw attention and pique the victim’s curiosity.
By impersonating stores, offering discounts, or even banks, charging for a payment not made, the messages are intended to deceive the person so malicious programs can more easily enter the host machine.
If the email has an attachment, attention should be redoubled. For this reason, if your team encounters the following extensions: .exe, .com, .vbs, .dll, or .js, contact your IT team immediately and let them know what happened.
Make Sure You Are Browsing Safely
As we said, cybercriminals look for ways to exploit any loophole to break into companies’ machines. Thus, not even browsers are safe from scams.
Like the previous item, hackers develop their websites to invade corporate systems. To avoid the situation, in addition to the simple practice of not entering any website without trust, be sure to update not only your computer’s browsers but your operating systems as well. The update is essential to cover flaws found by criminals who constantly exploit new vulnerabilities.
Make File Backups
Practice is one of the best ways to prevent hacker attacks, as it is possible to duplicate the essential information, making the hijacking ineffective for criminals. So even if you are affected, you can ignore the threat as the captured, and encrypted data can be recovered from other, more secure sources.
You need to have a regular backup. Whether weekly or daily, the work aims to ensure that you have the company’s current information, reducing damage in loss cases. To do this, you can opt for external hard drives, larger-capacity flash drives or the cloud itself (which we’ll talk about later) to store confidential information.
Double Security With The Cloud
Although electronic devices allow for storage, the company can rely on cloud technology for more effective security. In addition to ensuring more excellent data protection, the cloud will enable you to encrypt your information yourself.
In addition, the technology provides a higher level of security for your data. By requiring specific access from the manager, criminals would need to find a way to overcome the obstacles offered by innovation.
Another factor to highlight is its structure. Equipped with the best practices and trained professionals, the specialized group can monitor any attempts to invade the system through software and analyze the data through logs and their histories. Thus, if any suspicious activity is found, the security team can immediately block the intruder’s access, bringing greater security and tranquility to the company.
Also Read: Six Tips For Using Technology In Favor Of Your Business