With the increasing prevalence of ransomware attacks on small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it may not be a matter of if you will be attacked, but when. The best way to protect your essential company data is to invest in prevention and recovery. Keeping cyber criminals out of your system is the preferred approach, but it is not always guaranteed. Establishing a disaster recovery service, working with a Greater Boston remote monitoring management company, and creating a comprehensive data back-up will help you to recover quickly after an attack. A ransomware attack can be a terrifying thing for any business owner to experience. However, it might not always be in your best interest – or even necessary – to pay the ransom for data, especially if you have professional cloud-based disaster recovery already in place.
The Pros & the Cons
It is better to consider what you would do in the event of a ransomware attack before it happens than to make crucial decisions in the moment. Whether your data is hijacked or your website experiences a DDoS denial of service attack, you will likely be approached to pay what is now known as cyber-extortion in order to get it back. One school of thought is never to pay such a ransom to discourage the practice, such as a government policy of not negotiating with terrorists. However, depending on your unique situation and the industry that you serve, not paying might be extremely damaging to your business and the customers that you serve.
One such sector is the healthcare industry, which can mean the data being held hostage is extremely sensitive in nature. Not only would that be damaging to patients personally, but a DDoS attack means that physicians and other healthcare workers would not be able to access essential records necessary to provide life-saving treatment.
When it comes right down to it, whether to pay such a demand or not is unique to the business that is affected. This is why it is best to consider all factors, implications, and potential outcomes ahead of time so you will know what to do and act quickly when faced with this type of situation. It pays to work with a professional disaster recovery service and your legal staff to ensure that no risk is overlooked. Comprehensive data back-up can help you gain access to your essential company records, patient records, customer contacts, and other critical data quickly. However, determining whether the cybercriminal could still damage just by possessing the data they are holding ransom is another story. Releasing credit cards and other payment information on the dark web or various methods of financial damage is always a concern and should therefore be considered as well.
What You Can Do
The best approach is to make sure that you have all of the services, programs, systems, and insurance to help you recover from any type of attack. At Synivate, our Boston remote monitoring management service can help to identify minor issues before they become significant and costly problems, as well as ensure that your software, hardware, and system are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our disaster recovery service programs offer methods for comprehensive data back-up and cloud-based disaster recovery, along with other techniques designed to help our clients recover as quickly as possible so they can get back to business. You should also consider purchasing business-interruption and cybersecurity insurance, which can help provide compensation and financial support following an attack.
Establish a corporate policy for what to do in the event of a ransomware or DDoS attack, consulting with legal staff, law enforcement, and your insurance provider. Determine who you must notify in an attack and include it all in your company’s incident response playbook. This should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that any changes to your business, system, or the data you retain are safeguarded and considered. Your plan should include specific parameters of when to pay – or not to pay – extortion requests for data held hostage. Consider how cybercriminals would require payment, including cryptocurrency, so you will know how it works and what to do if you need to pay the ransom. Our team will work with you and your staff to ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done to protect essential data from attack and how to recovery if something occurs.
Reliable Disaster Recovery Service
If you would like to learn more about Synivate and our business continuity services designed to provide clients with peace of mind through comprehensive data back-up and cloud-based disaster recovery, give us a call at 617-848-1248. We can answer any questions you have about our services, including the popular Boston remote monitoring management program and other disaster recovery service protection methods. Call today to get a FREE IT Assessment or speak with one of our technicians about your unique needs and requirements.