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Tommy Chapman

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Your business is at threat in the digital extortion war being waged by Ransomware?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The incidences of Ransomware attacks on businesses is now at a frightening level, and still increasing, despite there being an armoury full of tools and methods which can be utilised in defence of your business system.

RMS has recently been called upon to assist several clients whose Back-office EPoS system became infected with Ransomware, probably as a result of someone in the clients business clicking on a seemingly innocuous looking link within an email. Until the system was rescued, the effect of the Ransomware on the clients business was disastrous with the system being inaccessible and unusable.

For a busy retailer having Ransomware on your back office computers and servers truly is a disaster to your daily operations. An inability for till transactions to be backed-up, for new products to be recorded into stock, to change product prices, and even check emails, are just some of the effects it can have on your business.

We care about your business and hence the reason for this Blog article asking you to take care of your EPoS and IT systems.

Read on to discover how to protect your business. ……..

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware, also known as Malware or Scareware, is a malicious software that restricts access to an infected computer while displaying a notification making demands for the computer user to pay a fee to restore access to the infected system. Recent ransomware, such as ‘WannaCry‘, ‘CryptoLocker’ and ‘CryptoWall’, are known to encrypt files, which locks up an infected computer making it virtually useless for performing basic functions or surfing the Internet.

Ransomware will ask that a substantial fee is paid for the decryption of the files to restore them back to their original state. However, paying for the ransom does not guarantee that the computer user will regain access to the infected computer.

Most Ransomware will make a false claim of online criminal activity or immoral acts detected by authorities. While the claims proved to be false, the threat is very real and could end up costing you a lot in the long run. The extortion price varies, ranging from £200 to more than £600, but may be much higher.

The technical challenges presented with Ransomware are vast. Such malware infections put your system’s resources at risk and could result in a total loss of your business data if the threat is not addressed or removed.

How do you get infected with Ransomware?

There are many ways that your business can be attacked including the following:

  1. Malicious attachments within spamming emails.
  2. A member of staff visiting a compromised website.
  3. Installing fake software updates.
  4. Exploiting vulnerabilities in outdated software and un-patched operating systems.

How to protect your business

  1. Be Secure: Protect yourself from Ransomware by always using anti-malware software and a firewall. Run a real-time anti-malware remediation tool and setup a strong firewall protection.
  2. Back Up Your Data: This is the most important step you can take to secure your system against Ransomware. To safeguard your valuable and important business data, schedule your system to perform a daily system backup to an external hard drive. After backing up, disconnect your drive. Current Ransomware is known to encrypt your back up drive as well.
  3. Update your OS & software regularly. Arrange for RMS to Patch and maintain your operating system, anti-malware, firewall, Adobe Flash Player, Java, browsers, and keep other software up-to-date.
  4. Avoid spam emails: become a vigilant guard of your system.
  5. DO NOT, in any circumstances, open emails in your spam folder.
  6. DO NOT, in any circumstances, open suspicious email attachments and links which reach your email inbox. Before opening any attachment or link, think, and ask yourself, is this safe?
  7. Use strong passwords: Reduce the risk of identity theft by setting up unique passwords for different accounts.
  8. Be Safe: If you notice a suspicious process on your PC, turn off the Internet connection instantly. This way Ransomware won’t get the chance to start a connection with its C&C server and cannot complete the encryption process.
  9. Train your staff to diligently follow the above action steps.

We care about your business, if you have questions about how you can best protect your EPoS system, please Contact Us today on 01750 700 527 or via our on-line enquiry form

We look forward to helping you with the future EPoS needs of your growing business.

You can also follow RMS on Social Media for all the latest information on the great benefits, features and deals on EPoS Hardware.

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