Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/727467
September/October 2016 11 continued on page 12 breaches were logged on the group's 2016 Breach List, resulting in 20,525,697 records exposed. Talk about scary. In July, a business associate of several Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations discovered that "an unauthorized individual" gained access to a computer server containing the pro- tected health information of close to 3.3 million people. And in the State of Vermont, it was a phishing scam that duped at least 500 employees after they responded to an email with the sub- ject line "IMPORTANT TAX RETURN DOCUMENT AVAILABLE." It's a Big Business Ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts or locks digital fi les and then demands payment to release them, has been a nuisance for years but a record number of threats and infl ated demands have forced the FBI to take notice. Calling the potential for loss cata- strophic, it recently issued a word of warning to a number of entities—hos- pitals, government agencies, school dis- tricts, mom and pops—advising them to ratchet up preventative measures. Invest in better cybersecurity tools. Take time to thoroughly train employees and cre- ate a solid continuity plan in the event of an attack. "Crowti (also known as Cryptowall), and FakeBsod are currently the two most prevalent ransomware families," says Sileo. "These two were detected on more than 850,000 PCs running Microsoft security software between June and November 2015. Another to take note of is Fessleak, which attacks Adobe Flash fl aws. It is a malvertising trend that pushes fi leless exploit into memory and uses local system fi les to extract and write malware to disk from memory. "Typically cyberattackers demand payment through an anonymous pay- ment system like Bitcoin or Green Dot cards and promise to give you the key if you pay the ransom in time," he adds. "For example, after its life-critical medi- cal records were frozen, the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital was given 72 hours to pay $17,000 for the release of its fi les. Almost 90 percent of the com- panies that we have studied as victims of ransomware end up paying the ran- som to have their systems unlocked— but only about 50 percent of them ever receive the unlocking code promised." When the IT director of an Alabama- based E&S dealer became a victim of ran- somware, he never considered paying. One hour after an employee clicked on a bogus link, random fi les were encrypted throughout the system. After the initial shock, he says, "I immediately started thinking about how I could unlock the fi les and the fi rst thing that came to mind was backup. I just restored all of the original information to the same locations and directed everyone here to delete the encrypted fi les when they opened a folder." Was it an inconvenience and a major waste of time? Yes, but the dealer consid- ers itself one of the lucky ones, thanks to a reliable internal and offsite backup system—nothing fancy, just the built- in function that comes with Microsoft Server 2008, and an old-school external hard drive. "The few people that were affected had plenty of other work to keep them busy while I restored our backup," says the IT director. "I don't think it caused enough of a problem to put a loss tag on it. It's just the nature of the beast in today's business world, so everyone can expect to have to restore a backup once in a while." Intel Security, Interpol and Kaspersky Labs have been thinking about how to reverse the effects of ransomware, too. Declaring that a "global threat requires international cooperation," the three recently joined forces to launch the website "No More Ransom," an initia- tive that offers hope in the form of sev- eral ransomware detection and decryp- tion tools to help victims unlock their data. Perhaps even more helpful, it also includes tips on how to avoid ransom- ware, altogether, but offers no guaran- tees, particularly without strict adher- ence to the basics (i.e., routine backups, keeping virus software up-to-date and taking care to steer clear of attachments from unfamiliar sources). Conditioning Them to Care Of course the best way to avoid ran- somware is to prevent it from overtaking your system, a directive Sileo believes is doable if business owners start by focusing on the personal opposed to fi xating on solutions rooted in technol- ogy. "One of the costliest data security missteps companies make is attempting to train employees from the perspective of the company," he says. "This ignores a crucial reality: All privacy is personal. In other words, no one in your organization will care about data security until they understand what it has to do with them." His strategy for accomplishing this is simple. Equip employees with the tools to protect their own information and that awareness will fl ow to the corpo- rate side. Attend a Sileo keynote pre- sentation and it's easy to make the con- nection. A good mix of edutainment and sheer terror, the talks cover everything from why the privacy sign in your hotel room should be glued to your door to practical tips on how to protect the information on your smartphone. One of many nuggets on securing the device: Take advantage of the remote wipe secu- rity feature. If you lose your phone or it is stolen, use it to clear sensitive infor- mation. "Think about it," says Sileo, "a smart- phone is a work device. People use it to Beware of Big Phish! Phishing is on the rise, according to the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. One of many startling stats: No fewer than 30 percent of phishing messages are opened and 12 percent of targets opened the malicious attachment or link.