DDSystems: Blog

us-md-circle-logo
phishing

Phishing

It started with an innocent-looking email. An employee opened it and clicked on an attachment that seemed legit.

In that moment, ransomware embedded itself in the company’s system and slowly encrypted files in the background until the employees were locked out of their server-based spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and client databases. This was quickly followed by a ransomware demand.

The company called us to help them sort out the mess. Fortunately, there were two things that helped them avoid permanent data and productivity loss―some of their workflow was already in the cloud and they were already having us do regular data backups.

It took a bit, but we got them back on their feet without paying the ransom. It could have been much worse―and exponentially more expensive.

Once the company regained control of their systems and their internal postmortem on the incident was complete, they updated their employee onboarding policy to include cybersecurity awareness training.

While there’s no way to avoid every danger, the risk of the big ones―like ransomware―can be mitigated with proactive steps like regular, offsite backups and employee training.

Need some help implementing or managing these protocols? We’re here for you.


Avatar

DDSystems