The Petya virus is the latest ransomware to hit thousands of computers internationally. Believed to have started in Ukraine this virus has already shut down companies in Russia, Australia, and the US. This virus is believed to come in an email attachment. When you click the attachment, it releases a code into your computer, locking all of your viruses.
Reports are saying that this virus is demanding $300 in Bitcoin to release each computer. This has not yet been confirmed. Security officials are not sure where the threat originated but believe it was in Ukraine due to the native language the emails were written in.
The Cadbury Chocolate company was infected and currently cannot access any of their computer. The computers have the following message displayed:
Datasmith keeps talking about the cybersecurity threats and the importance of being proactive instead of reactive. Here are some tools you should be implementing right now:
- Hosted Exchange
Datasmith offers a service called “hosted exchange.” What is hosted exchange? Hosted Exchange allows Datasmith to make a Microsoft e-mail box and space available on a server so its clients can host their email data on the server. We manage the hosted data of its clients on the server. This adds a strong level of security between you and attackers. Since Datasmith is an IT company, we live and breathe IT and security. We also have a team of engineers dedicated to keeping servers safe and secure. - Back-up, Back-up, and Back-up
What’s the best way to avoid paying ransomware fees? Have a back-up of your data and files. When we say back-up, we don’t mean an external hard drive with a copy of your most important business files. We mean a complete carbon copy of your business stored safely in a remote location. How do you do this? Utilize one of the many back-up and recovery services. Datasmith strongly recommends using Axcient. We partnered with Axcient several years ago. Axcient operates silently in the background. It creates a carbon copy back up of your business every day – so if disaster strikes, Datasmith can get your company up and running in minutes. Axcient is the difference between a ransomware virus shutting down your business and keeping your doors open. - Anti Virus and Firewall
Your first line of digital defense is your anti-virus and firewall. If these two pieces aren’t up to date, you are defenseless against an outside threat. If you’ve been ignoring those anti-virus pop up windows or aren’t quite sure what a firewall is, contact Datasmith immediately to protect yourself. - Office 365
Office 365 is Microsoft’s Software As A Service solution for it’s Microsoft Office Products. You utilize Microsoft’s servers to access their various software from any device connected to the internet. This also provides an added layer of security to your email and files. Not to mention employees like being able to access their files and emails from anywhere.
We cannot stress enough the importance of having the right cybersecurity tools in place to prevent attacks like this. These attacks will only continue to grow in frequency and severity. Protect yourself now before it’s too late.
