Cyberattacks Becoming More Common
Hardly a day passes where there is not a headline in the news about the most recent cyberattack. According to the FBI, 4000 cyberattacks are launched worldwide every day. The question is not if you will be attacked but rather when. If major tech companies such as Solar Winds and Microsoft can be attacked, so can your government agency. We frequently hear stories about companies, government agencies, and even some of our own customers, who have been victims of cyber security attacks.
Why This is Important
At stake is not just your systems but also your data. You can recover your systems, albeit not without significant downtime. However, in many cases, if you do not have good backups, you may experience significant data loss. Losing your RiteTrack client records (or any other records for that matter) can be devastating to your program.
Protecting Yourself from a Cyberattack
Cybercriminals have three primary attack strategies:
• People
• Data
• Systems
The only 100% method from preventing a cyberattack is to disconnect all your systems from the Internet. While RiteTrack could be run on a local network only, this strategy is not realistic for most of our customers. The webinar details what you can do to protect yourself in each of these three areas. By far, your most vulnerable area is your employees (people). Please make sure to implement some of the key initiatives that we recommend including implementing multi-factor authentication, using a password manager, rolling out stricter password policies, and training–lots of training.
Preparing Yourself to Withstand a Cyberattack
No matter how many resources you put into protecting yourself, there is never a 100% chance that you will be invulnerable to a cyberattack. As cybercriminals are armed with increasingly sophisticated technology, it is our recommendations to spend your resources on how to withstand and recover from a cyberattack without paying ransom. There is one very simple way to prepare yourself for a cyberattack recovery: Quality backups that are both off-line and off-site. Rest assured however, these concepts are not that complicated.
A quality backup is one that is up to date and will incur minimal data loss. Off-line means that it is not connected to a computer on the Internet. When you are attacked, your off-line backups are safe. Off-site means you have taken them to a different location. We put ours in a safety deposit box at our bank. Off-site not only prevents access to the hackers but will also keep your data safe in event of a fire.
Recovering from a Cyberattack
This has been an overview of some of the topics we cover in our Cybersecurity webinar. We take the safety of our customer’s RiteTrack data very seriously. For those who are hosting their own RiteTrack system we do not want to see you falling victim to cybercriminals. If you want to learn more about how to protect yourself and how to recover from a cyberattack, Register for this 45-minute recording to learn effective tactics you can employ today.
Read about other cyberattacks:
Ransomware Attack Roiled Meat Giant JBS, Then Spilled Over to Farmers and Restaurants
JBS Paid $11 Million to Resolve Ransomware Attack
The Ruthless Hackers Behind Ransomware Attacks on U.S. Hospitals: ‘They Do Not Care’
