RIDGEWAY – Local cybersecurity experts spoke Wednesday about how businesses can protect themselves from cyberattacks through the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission's Partnership for Regional Economic Performance (PREP) program. We discussed.
Nate Rogers of Omnis Technologies in Lewis Run presented facts and figures regarding the occurrence of such attacks. This attack aims to trick companies and their employees into granting access to their files, locking them, and then demanding a ransom to get the files. Returns information.
Ransomware is the act of using malicious software to access a company's information. Rogers said this type of attack occurs every 14 seconds for him and the average ransom is his $4.5 million.
The average downtime a company experiences is 22 days. He also said there is no guarantee that companies will get their data back if they pay the ransom.
He said hackers would use social engineering to manipulate people to identify information that could lead to sensitive information such as passwords, such as wiretapping, mail or even tailgating cars. .
Phishing emails and text messages are also used by hackers to impersonate businesses to protect sensitive information and access accounts.
Rogers said an average of 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent every day, and they may come from hackers masquerading as trusted sources.
To prevent such attacks, Rogers said businesses should ask themselves whether the email is coming from someone they know and whether it has a recognizable domain name.
He said a way to check for such scams is to look at the font and grammar usage within the email. Never click on links in such suspicious emails, he said.
Rogers also explained how similar techniques are used in text messages, with 2.3 million such fraudulent messages being sent every day.
Rogers said the data encryption process begins in just three seconds and uses an impossible key, a chain of letters, numbers and symbols, to prevent companies from accessing the information again. Usually, he said, it leads to his 100% loss of information.
Rogers said ransom payments averaged $5.3 million a year, an increase of 37% from last year.
He said the best practice for businesses to protect themselves is to access exposure, including blocking suspicious emails, blocking malicious websites and checking computer software for vulnerabilities.
Risks also include data loss aimed at destroying a company's backup data, with 14% of companies able to recover data without paying a ransom. However, 19% of companies that paid the ransom were unable to recover their lost data.
Reputational damage can also occur to employees and businesses, and can have lasting effects, including the loss of new employees and customers. Additionally, legal liability also arises.
He said the best way for companies to counter such attacks is to build response teams that meet regularly to discuss best practices, including training against such attacks.
Rogers said using firewalls such as routers, onsite and offsite computer backups, switches and servers, and a set of policies to handle such incidents are good starting points. Also, turning off internet access during an attack is a great way to stop and attack the attack.
Rogers said some of the best practices companies should take advantage of include holding webinars, using cybersecurity programs like KnowBe4 and Webroot antivirus programs, and training employees to recognize spam email and text attacks. He recommended continuous training.
The PREP program is a network of Pennsylvania business support partners designed to help businesses start, grow, and thrive.
For more information about NC PREP, visit www.ncentral.com/nc-prep or contact Mikala Biondi at 814-773-3162, extension 10. 3046.
