That is the million dollar question. And, I'm sorry to say, that answer is yes. The answer is always yes. But now with the situation in Ukraine deteriorating, the risk of cyber attack from Russia and pro-Russian sources is expected to increase dramatically.
The world isn't isolated anymore, and we are all connected to it in some form. Having any Internet exposure at all is a risk factor. The recommendation right now is to work on hardening your attack surface, to minimize any exposed points, and to be vigilant when on the Internet.
The most important factor is going to be the human factor. We are truly the last line of defense against an attack, because we can see and identify patterns and behaviors that would tell us something doesn't smell right. Naturally we can also put technology to work to help us, from antivirus protection, to firewalls and filters, and other network-related goodies. With all of these things working together it should help prevent you or your business from being hit by the coming wave.
These threats can come in a dizzying amount of ways nowadays. Used to clicking on a bad link on a website was what you had to watch out for. Those are still out there, but there is also email, phishing and spear phishing, which is a targeted attack against a single group or individual. There are custom malware packages out there that can simply be bought and configured, and deployed. You don't even have to write your own malicious code anymore. Malware-as-a-service is really a thing. Even fake texts can hit your cell phone now, and can sometimes be very convincing.
The places most at risk are likely not the ones that have been beefing up their security measures. They are likely to be the ones who haven't kept up with security and don't think it can happen to them. They're just a small business, and not related to something worth attacking, like the power grid or other infrastructure. But if it's easy to attack, and there are lots of places like that, then the bad guys can get your money and shut you down and still get what they want.
So what can you do? I'm glad you asked! My NetWORKS is here to help you secure your network and help keep the bad guys out. If you need a firewall, or to replace a firewall, I can help you. I can also deploy antivirus across your business, so that you know each computer is protected. We can also go over scenarios and things to teach your users so they know what to look for when they get an email from the boss that looks just a little strange.
Keeping the computers up to date with updates, and on a current operating system is also a key factor. If you're still using Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, or Server 2008, please get with me and let's work on a plan to get things replaced. Are you still using Office 2003, or 2007, or even 2010? Has that old server that all of the company's files are kept on been updated in a while? Does anyone even know the password? If that goes down what happens to your business?
I have witnessed a company fall victim to a spear phishing attack, where the CFO wired $25,000 to someone because a fake email from the CEO told them to do so. It was a bad situation, and the money was never recovered. I also helped a company recover from a malware attack that occurred because one person with too many access permissions clicked on a bad email link and it not only encrypted their computer, but the main file server. To top it off the server backups had not been working so the best I could do was to restore a month-old backup that I found buried in the server. By the way their QuickBooks data was stored on that server. Can you afford that kind of down time? Or the amount of time it would take rebuild?
Let's work on a plan to avoid seeing something that looks like this:
Contact My NetWORKS so I can help you work on a plan to help you make sure you are protected.
417-501-9138 (call or text)
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