John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco Systems, predicts that over 65,000 ransomware attacks will occur in 2021, and cost companies an average of $170,000 per attack. But he’s not the only one…
FBI Director Christopher Wray compared the current attacks with 9/11.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in regards to recent cyberattacks, Wray said “There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention…There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American.”
According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Ransomware is an ever-evolving form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption.
So, what can you do to prevent your company from becoming the next target of a ransomware attack?
VOX Network Solutions security partner, Consilien, recently published these five common and costly mistakes regarding cybersecurity:
- No comprehensive security awareness trainingfor your employees.
- No incident response plan. Your chances of experiencing a cybersecurity breach is 1 in 4 (while your chances of having your home robbed is 1 in 36). Without a plan, your time to remediate the situation increases, which increases cost of your downtime, and compounds the long-tail costs associated with a security breach.
- Security policies and procedures either do not exist or are not implemented across the organization.Security policies and procedures help to standardize security procedures and manage risk more effectively.
- No regularly scheduled vulnerability scans, penetration tests, and security assessments.These tools give you an opportunity to discover and fix critical issues before bad actors have an opportunity to exploit them.
- Vendor liability.Supply chain attacks can be the weakest link in your cybersecurity program. Require that your vendors have reasonable security measures in place.
Avoiding these mistakes can be easily done and save your company tons of money. Click here to learn more about protecting your company from ransomware and other cybersecurity threats trough VOX Network Solution’s security practice. VOX also offers security awareness training.