MSPNetworks Blog

Ransomware is devastating as a cyberthreat, but some industries are hurt by it more than others. One such industry is education, and universities and schools are struggling to keep up with these cyberthreats. Most even do the unthinkable in response to attacks: they pay the ransom.

Sophos reports that cybercriminals are increasingly going after the networks of universities and schools with their ransomware, seeing these targets as extremely profitable victims. If you think about it, it makes sense, as institutions of education tend to store immense amounts of personal data that could be valuable to hackers who might want to sell it on the black market. According to Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos, “Schools are among those being hit the hardest by ransomware. They're prime targets for attackers because of their overall lack of strong cybersecurity defenses and the goldmine of personal data they hold.”

The average ransom paid by schools suffering from a ransomware attack is $1.97 million, an absolutely astounding number. The average victim from the higher education industry, however, pays on average $905,000. One can see how these types of attacks would be tempting to pull off for ransomware hackers.

The large reason behind why schools and universities are paying up in response to these ransomware attacks is because these organizations cannot function without access to their data. With school records and networks being encrypted, many of the functions involved with their operations cannot occur. For example, many schools have intranets set up where resources and services can be accessed, and if networks are locked down by ransomware, they cannot be accessed, making things like attending class or accessing services impossible.

Sophos indicates that only 61 percent of the data stolen from schools and universities is recovered after paying the ransom; so, in addition to paying the ransom, cybersecurity professionals need to spend even more time and resources recovering the rest of the data.

These kinds of ransomware attacks cannot be taken lightly. Schools and universities are not exclusively vulnerable to ransomware. All organizations, including your business, can potentially become victims of ransomware attacks.

The best way to keep ransomware from affecting your business is to take a two-pronged approach. Implementing preventative measures and training your staff can go a long way on its own, but we also recommend proactively monitoring your infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities and threats. As long as you keep tabs on what is going on with your network, you won’t have anything to fear—especially if you work with a security provider like MSPNetworks.

MSPNetworks can help your business prepare for ransomware attacks through a combination of preventative measures and proactive monitoring. With the right technology solutions on your side, you’ll have all the protections in place to ensure that there is minimal chance of ransomware affecting your operations. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

There is always going to be user error in the workplace. Even the best workers make mistakes sometimes. You naturally want to reduce these occurrences as often as possible, but for the purposes of training and whatnot, you want to assume the worst: that any worker, even the most dedicated veteran, could potentially make a business-ending mistake. Thankfully, there are ways you can make sure this doesn’t happen for your business.

Here are three tips for reducing human error in the workplace.

Provide Proper Training
Surprisingly enough, if you train your employees properly, you won’t have to worry about them making mistakes; at least, not as much as you would under untrained circumstances. You should take care to properly outline all of your processes in a way that’s easy to understand, including both intensive and routine tasks, as well as having an established workflow for reporting issues or identifying security problems with spam or phishing emails.

Limit User Permissions
Not all users will need the same permissions on their devices. For example, an IT administrator might need admin permissions, but the average user won’t. The same can be said for access to specific data on your network. You should partition off certain information to only those departments that might need it so you can avoid an access issue with other employees. Basically, the fewer permissions a user has on their device or network, the less harm can come of it in the event a hacker manages to sneak their way in.

Use Your Collective Workforce to “Crowdsource” for Quality
We’re sure you’ve heard the phrase “two heads are better than one,” and you’ll be interested to hear that the same phrase can be applied to the workplace. If you have a large project that could use an extra pair of eyes, why not ask your coworkers for a quick glance? It might help putting out a project with glaring errors that you might not notice because you’ve been staring at it for a few weeks straight. You can think of this process as beta testing in a way, as you can determine potential problems with a product before it is actually released to the public. This can prevent a loss of profit from a product or service that’s not ready to be released can bring if it’s thrown out into the world too soon.

If your business wants to cut out the dangers of human error in the workplace, MSPNetworks can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.