Once considered more of a threat to enterprise-level organisations than SMEs, ransomware criminals are now targeting the little guys.
However lower-level executives are often not aware that such an attack – where victims are locked out of their company systems and a demand made for their reopening and the safe return of stolen data – could destroy their business.
鈥淩ight now, ransomware is the number one cyber threat facing UK businesses, particularly SMEs,鈥� Nicola Hartland, senior vice president of innovation and growth at Falanx Cyber, tells 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淭he biggest problem for small- and mid-sized businesses is a lack of awareness 鈥� they don鈥檛 understand quite how much they need their systems and data. This is why founders or board members so often devalue its importance over other elements of their business.
鈥淐ybercriminals know this, making mid-sized firms a popular target as defences are often weak compared to big corporates.鈥澛�
Hackers will get into a company鈥檚 network through phishing attacks, out-of-date software or password guessing from leaked lists off the dark web.聽
鈥淏y the time a business has been locked out of all its systems, it鈥檚 already too late,鈥� says Hartland. 鈥淚t comes as no surprise that 80% of UK firms end up paying the ransom demanded by their attackers. Unfortunately, paying the ransom still never guarantees the end of the attack, either.鈥澛�
Ben Jenkins, director of cybersecurity at ThreatLocker, told 老九品茶Cloud that the latest approaches taken by threat actors are 鈥渢errifying鈥�.
Falanx Cyber – part of publicly listed Reading-headquartered Falanx Group – identifies areas of cyber risk threatening the integrity of businesses and provides complete end-to-end managed security services to alleviate those risks.
It combines managed detection and response (MDR) services with penetration testing, incident response and consultancy.
鈥淭o protect yourself, I always recommend having two-factor authentication in place across all applications,鈥� says Hartland. 鈥淭o prevent an attack outright as a business, staff awareness training and password policies are vital.聽
鈥淭he ultimate defence is either endpoint detection and response, or a fully managed detection and response to watch over your networks 24/7.鈥�
Darktrace shares dive after 拢6bn private equity takeover called off