Top 3 Things You Can do to Protect Your Business

Scams don’t only happen to individuals; in some cases, an entire business can fall victim to a scam. A popular scam that affects businesses is called “ransomware” - hacking an entire business’s network through a computer virus and demanding payment for access.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) describes a typical scam of this sort as the victim clicking on an infected advertisement, link or email attachment that is followed by a pop-up. The message on the screen states that all the files on the office’s computers have been encrypted, “making them useless unless you have a key to decode them.”

The problem with these ransom-inspired viruses is that the people behind the viruses demand payments in Bitcoin, so the payment works like cash and can’t be traced.

“Ransomware will continue to be a real problem for businesses this year,” said Paula Fleming, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer for the local BBB. “I have spoken with many businesses in the past that got hit with ransomware and their entire office computer network was frozen.”

According to CBBB, victims have reported losing up to $10,000 after a new version of this scam came out in 2015 that encrypts files.

Here are three urgent steps businesses need to take to protect themselves from ransomware:

Install protection. Have the best virus and malware protection installed and kept current on the business’s computers.

Have reliable offsite backup. Every business needs to have one or more reliable backup options. Carbonite, Mozy, Nordic or other services provide backup to their clients so that if a computer is frozen, the business’s IT personnel can wipe the hard drives clean and reinstall the backup. Nordic and others offer “bare metal” backup, which even backs up software (Microsoft, etc.) so everything can be reinstalled.

Train your staff. Train your staff to not click on everything and beware of questionable emails with attachments. In almost every case of ransomware, someone in the office unknowingly clicked on a deceptive email attachment and allowed the virus into the network.

For more information you can trust, visit us at bbb.org/boston, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.