Learn How to Prepare for a Ransomware Attack in Three Steps

Ransomware is one of the fastest growing threats to businesses. Last year alone, small and medium size businesses paid over $700,000,000 to cyber criminals, and even then, most were never able to fully recover afterwards. Here are the three steps you should be taking to stay ahead of the attackers:

1. Learn the Risks

How long can your business afford to be down? A day? An hour? What data is mission-critical to your business? Ransomware attackers rely on the fact that business owners will pay hefty sums to avoid downtime. Understanding the impact to your business is the first step to fighting back.

2. Create a Recovery Plan

Once you have an idea of how much downtime your business can handle, it’s time to put a plan into action. Your plan will be unique to your business, but all successful plans have three key elements: data security procedures, regular backup of mission-critical data, and a retrieval plan for this data in the event of a disaster. Have a plan to backup/recover your user profiles and critical business software in addition to your files.

3. Test your Recovery Plan

The final step in preparing for a ransomware attack is to test your recovery plan regularly. Ask yourself the following: Were all my scheduled backups successful? Can they be accessed remotely? Can my users log in following a recovery? Did my recovery plan take more or less time than I expected? Just like regular fire drills keep your employees safe, regular tests of your data recovery plan are crucial to your data security.

Like any disaster, ransomware can happen at any time, but with the above information, your business will be prepared for when it does.

Need help getting started? Register for our free informational webinar:

Protecting Your Data from Cyber Threats in 2018

Thursday, August 2, 2018 11:00 AM Eastern

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2777261210468755458

Looking for more information, such as a free disaster recovery checklist, or an evaluation of your current recovery plan? Contact me today:

Michael Uttermohlen
Strategic Advisor, The AME Group
(317) 842-6400 x5003
[email protected]