“But I’m small. No one knows I exist. They know they won’t get 2 million dollars from me.”
But what about $140,000? The average ransom paid out by Canadian organizations. What about the damage from afterwards, lost trust, bad business publicity, the continued distrust of your own systems and data?
Size Doesn’t Matter
No matter what size your company is, it’s just a matter of when, not if, you’re going to have a cyber security breach and potentially a ransomware request. 4 in 5 Canadian businesses were targeted and 83 percent of Canadian businesses reported an attempted ransomware attack and 67% have experienced one.
“As the study shows, Canadian companies can no longer avoid the threat of ransomware,” says Leita Ouellette, General Manager of Cybersecurity at TELUS. “Unfortunately, it’s no longer a question of if, but when you’ll experience an attack.”
Is there no hope?
There is hope! But it takes a little thought, a little time and some intentional work to end those sleepless nights of worry.
Here’s an easy 3 steps to start with.
1. Know the risk
- Who is at risk? My industry? My size?
- What is at risk? My Data? Our App access? Our Private info (employees or vendors or clients)? Money?
- How much is at risk? Your money? Business Access? Public Perception?
2. Mitigate the risk
Depending on what you identify as your risk will determine the specific steps you might resource for (dollars and people) to mitigate that risk.
- Physical Deterrent – Next Generation Firewall.
- Software Deterrent – virus/malware detection (EPP and EDR), deep data continuous surveillance.
- Insurance – coverage for down time, $$ theft, lawsuits form clients, vendors or employees.
3. Make a Plan for when it happens
- How to get system and data access back.
- How to get access to your critical files.
- Damage analysis and what to do once you know.
- File details with law enforcement, your insurance company, your bank.
- Pre-Plan your PR campaign.
- Lawyer up!
It seems like a lot of work but there is help. Your MSP has the expertise to walk through this process with you, including everything on this list. Give them a call to discuss and make sure when your turn to be compromised comes, you’re ready, you’re steady and you can sleep well at night knowing you’ve got things under control.
