Ransomware Attacks On The Rise

“Last year in 2016, ransomware attacks grew at a blistering pace. In total, SonicWall reports 638 million. That’s more than 167 times the number of attacks in 2015.  Beyond the staggering volume of the attacks, there’s the huge sums of money that individuals and organizations paid to (hopefully) get their files decrypted. Though it’s difficult to give a truly accurate total — not everyone hit by ransomware is keen to talk about such incidents — SonicWall’s report estimates that around $209 million in ransoms were paid in the first quarter of 2016 alone.  Here’s another alarming note from the report: less than half of victims who were attacked were able to fully recover their data. That indicates a couple of things. One is that you can’t always rely on ransomware to fully restore your files. The other is that it’s critically important to make sure that you have a bulletproof backup plan that’s actually backing up your files properly and storing them somewhere safe.”   (Forbes 2/7/17)

If you’ve not been in full hibernation this winter you’ve probably heard about ransomware attacks taking place on computer networks around the globe. Software Solutions is aware of at least 4 of our customers being hit by these ransomware attacks. Some critical things you need to do to protect yourself include a good antivirus solution and firewall as well as an off-site backup solution.

“Adding the on-line backup was the best money I ever spent with Software Solutions.” 

You run millions of dollars through your SSI Software applications. Don’t put yourself at risk; protect yourself the best you can! One customer hit by an attack commented. “Adding the Cloud Backup was the best money I ever spent with Software Solutions.” Additional information about our online backup solution can be found here. CloudBackup_Brochure.pdf.