SecurityInfoWatch.com Provides Five Tips to Prevent Ransomware
Hikvision Outlines Ways to Prevent Malware
In “Small business: A big target for ransomware,” SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW) outlines the real threat that ransomware–a type of malware–has on small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), and provides tips to prevent it.
Cybercriminals are targeting SMBs for a variety of reasons according to the article, including the sheer size of the market, since SMBs “defined as organizations that generate less than $1 billion in annual revenue, account for about 99.9 percent of all companies, 47.5 percent of all jobs and as much as half of annual GDP.”
In 2016, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center made a $17,000 ransomware payment using bitcoin. According to the article, many ransomware attacks have occurred since then, with one demand for a seven-figure payment, while the average ransomware demand is about $10,000.
In the article, SIW offers these five tips to prevent ransomware:
- Update anti-virus software.
- Train employees to identify phishing attempts and avoid unknown attachments and links in emails.
- Block macro-enabled malware files from running on Microsoft Office 2016 programs like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
- Disable autoplay functionality to prevent malware from running on your computer.
- Enable automated patches for both your operating system and web browsers.
For more SIW tips, and to read the whole article, click here.
Hikvision Outlines Tips to Prevent Malware
According to Hikvision’s director of cybersecurity, Chuck Davis, malware is one of the most often used components in cyberattacks. In a recent article, he said: “Two of the most prevalent attack methods are, network scanning and phishing. A typical network scanning attack occurs when a system scans a network (frequently the Internet) looking for vulnerable systems. When it finds one, it will exploit the vulnerability and infect the system with malware.”
Click here to read the Hikvision blog “Top Five Tips to Prevent Malware Attacks.”