Hackers are Lazy – Why Are You Making Life Easy for Them?

It's a fact that most criminals just don't want to work all that hard. Burglars would rather enter through an unlocked door or window than attempt a break in.

“The overwhelming number of burglars are unskilled people who go through open or unlocked windows and doors,” says Leonard Sipes, the former director of information services for the National Crime Prevention Council, in a Reader's Digest article. 

There just aren't that many sophisticated Ocean's Eleven crews out there gunning to break into your house – or your data.

The same goes for cybercriminals – they'd much rather look for the open windows and doors in their targets from sloppy passwords or out-of-date anti-virus software.

You don't even need to be a programmer to be a cybercriminal these days – on the Dark Web you can access ransomware-as-a-service. Some services even help out with tips and online support! One creator even uploaded a walkthrough of their ransomware product on YouTube.

These ransomware-as-a-service enterprises are designed to be simple to set up and then roam the Internet looking for digital open doors and windows.

Lock Your Digital Doors and Windows

The most common vehicle of ransomware infection continues to be via phishing emails. 

The basics of online security remain straightforward:

• Back up your data – have a backup copy of your data remains the best last line of defense against succumbing to either paying a ransom or losing your data.
• Practice good password management – don't use dates, pet or kid names, and don't use the same password for both work and personal logins.
• Ensure the software and hardware running and protecting your network is up-to-date with the latest patches and security updates. Many successful ransomware attacks have exploited already discovered security holes for which there were patches – only the companies who were successfully attacked hadn't applied the patches.
• Train your employees and regularly reinforce how important good network security is to your office and business.

The most important aspect of protection is to acknowledge that the information security risk is real. We continue to emphasis this point as a company because it's crucial – small size is no defense against cybercriminals. You can read more here, but here's the key information: every year, the number of attacks on small to medium businesses has increased.

Internal IT teams can struggle to handle all of these issues as well as their day-to-day tasks of user support. Managed network security is a way to outsource the challenge of daily network management to an experienced partner.

It's easy to think you're secure even if you're not. Sign up for a free network assessment and we'll take a look for you.

Lock down your network and the “doors and windows” that provide easy access to your precious business data.