No Deal for Ransomware Hackers: A family-run produce company hit by CryptoLocker avoided paying ransom for its data by restoring critical supplier account data from a cloud backup
Cybercrime is relentless and devastating. Global data breaches have increased 15 percent over the past year, costing companies $3.5 million each year¹. Victims in the U.S. alone have paid more than $209 million in ransom payments in the first three months of this year, compared with $25 million in all of 2015². An increasingly common tactic employed by cybercriminals is to steal and encrypt business data, then demand ransom for the decryption key. Called ransomware, this type of hacking is particularly insidious, demanding that victims pay for something they already own.
In 2013, a ransomware variant called CryptoLocker started making the rounds, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers and racking up millions of dollars in damages. One such business was a family-run produce company, where an unsuspecting employee fell for a phishing scheme that resulted in the encryption of nearly 1 TB of data, including the company’s supplier, customer and employee financial files as well as other important data.
Thankfully, the company had invested in reliable cloud-based data protection, which made it possible to get a full data restore overnight and avoid paying the ransom. Within a day, the virus had been wiped off the network, business applications were running, and accounting files were accessible again.
Data protection is a must, especially considering a single crypto-malware or ransomware attack can cost small and medium-sized companies up to $99,000³. Because cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to break into networks to steal data and ransomware is constantly evolving, even the best security software can be breached. This is why a secondary layer of defense is critical for businesses to ensure recovery in case malware strikes: backup.
Using our K-Cloud Backup and Recovery solution, Kobargo’s data protection services have helped businesses recover from cyber-attacks. Remember, data loss has forced many a business to close its doors, and you don’t want to be in that position, especially when financial or accounting information is involved. Our military-grade services, supported by dual-coast SSAE-16 compliant data centers, offer change-block tracking technology for faster backups and restores.
