Cybercrime at an all time high
Cybercrime is a word that is becoming more and more mainstream. There doesn’t seem to be a week goes by where there isn’t another headline story. Whether it’s major data leaks such as the TalkTalk incident or even extortion attempts against the police or hospitals, cybercrime is a threat that every business needs to take seriously.
Some of the figures are staggering. The TalkTalk breach was estimated to cost the company in excess of £30m with the average attack on large UK businesses costing between £1.4m and £3.14m last year. Things don’t seem to be improving either, in the first quarter of 2015, McAfee Labs saw a 165% increase from the previous quarter in new ransomware contributing to making it the fastest growing area of crime.
It’s not all bad news however as there are many things a business can do to avoid becoming a victim of a serious attack:
- Education – being cybercrime aware is the best tool in the toolkit against these criminals. Knowing what type of attacks to watch out for will help you avoid many attempts. Check out our articles here and here for more information. If you’re not sure about something, ask your I.T. support. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
- Antivirus – having a good antivirus these days is essential. Innocent looking files can have sinister purposes. An out of date antivirus is of no use so it’s important to make sure the subscription is up to date otherwise you will have very limited protection.
- Backup – if you do have a data loss then it is vital that you have a good backup system to recover from. Many businesses don’t recover from a major data loss.
- Monitoring – good I.T. support companies will be able to remotely monitor your computers for tell-tale signs of a security breach.
Here at Wilson Computers we monitor our client’s systems and can identify serious problems from here in our offices. This pro-active approach means we may be able to catch an attack before it does any serious damage and we know that if the worst comes to the worst, we have backups we can use to get everyone back up and running as quickly as possible.
If this is something you think your business could benefit from then please get in touch and we can provide a free quote for ongoing support and monitoring.
Stay safe out there!
Scott Wilson
Wilson Computers
