Imagine this. You’re sitting at your desk, trying to respond to all of your emails, when all of a sudden your screen goes red and the following message pops up:
The first thing you probably do is start having a panic attack. You start hitting the escape key, hoping against hope that the message will just go away. But it doesn’t. You quickly switch to, maybe I’ll just pay the $300 worth of bitcoin and no one will ever know. But as you begin to pick up your phone to start googling, how do I pay a ransom in bitcoin, your team starts knocking on your office door, bursting with the bad news. It’s not just your data, everything is encrypted. And what’s worse, you don’t have an up-to-date backup.
This nightmare scenario has been played out in over 50% of SMBs that were breached in the past 12 months. 50%. That’s 1 out of 2 businesses. A flip of a coin. Even if you are a gambler, those aren’t good odds.
Knowing how the hackers are able to get to SMBs is the key to understanding how to outsmart them. Here are the top 3 techniques that hackers employ to attack your system:
1. Diverse delivery systems
Cyber attackers are not just one-trick ponies. They utilize a variety of delivery systems to increase their chances that someone in your company is going to click on something they shouldn’t. From social engineering tools like phishing spam and clickbait to malicious spam and advertising, hackers use a variety of means to trick you into clicking so they can take over your computer.
2. Complex coding
All of the publicity surrounding cybersecurity has helped encourage companies to beef up their security system. But that hasn’t stopped the attacks. Hackers frequently update their code to get past signature-based counter-measures that the first line of defense security programs typically perform. They also develop code that is meant to worm its way from system to system in order to infect as many machines as possible.
3. Difficult to trace payment system
Bitcoin remains the most popular choice of payment when it comes to paying a ransom. Bitcoin is easier to obtain and exchange, while providing a lot of anonymity. Ransom demands are made easy since attackers provide instructions on how to create a virtual wallet, buy the bitcoins to pay the ransom that will provide the code that will unencrypt your data.
Understanding how cyber hackers use these techniques is the key to getting a step ahead. Developing a multi-layered security system while educating your team on the best cybersecurity practices, will help ensure that your business will not become the next statistic.