Ransomware attacks on SMBs increased eight-fold in the past year

RANSOMWARE CONTINUES TO BE A NUISSANCE for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) and the attacks are ever increasing on an annual basis.

Kaspersky Security Network released a new report which published they had detected and blocked around 27,000 plus attempts by hackers at encrypting company data between Q3 2015 and Q3 2016. The year before Kaspersky noticed around just over 3,000 attacks.

Kaspersky has warned that businesses must and need to be very aware of ransonware attacks so they can implement preventative measures.  An example of one of these measures is to warn employees not to click on dodgy looking emails, this is because it is very common for ransonware to arrive and infiltrate businesses network by email in the form of a phishing attack.

Kaspersky also said that businesses and their employees should have the knowledge on how to make back-ups for critical data, how to update software on the devices that are used for work and how to implement high-end information security solutions, of course they would prefer businesses to use Kaspersky products.

Kaspersky mouthpiece Vladimir Zapolyansky, head of SMB marketing at the firm, said: “Threats in the small business sector are constantly increasing, therefore even the smallest companies need to be able to protect themselves.

“When it comes to ransomware, paying the ransom doesn’t guarantee that data will be returned safely. To ensure protection from ransomware and other types of attacks, businesses need to implement reliable, up-to-date information security solutions as a preventative measure. It is always easier to prevent threats, as opposed to respond to them when the damage has already been done.”

Kaspersky has warned that those businesses that are not prepared for ransonware attacks will have a pretty rough time, it claims that around 55% of businesses surveyed said it had taken them several days to restore access to encrypted data after being attacked.

In August of this year a report was published and announced that over half of UK businesses have been effected by ransonware, additionally the money grabbing attacks have left nearly 10% “entirely unable to operate”