Don’t panic! They’re counting on it

Quick question - You just discovered that your system was attacked and your data breached. Hackers are demanding for ransom, what do you do?

Now, I am sure you are aware of common actions; call the police, inform your insurance company, inform your clients, contain the breach, but how do you do it? Who does what? What are their numbers? What order do you need to perform them in? What is your most immediate action? What are your details?

Believe it or not, hackers are counting on you not knowing these details because it’ll lead to panic. Panic will then lead to a wrong decision. The simple fact is that regardless of how fortified your networks are, if you don’t have drills and plans for an attack, you will be at a loss.

You need a plan, a step-by-step instruction on what to do in case of an attack. A plan that contains the information of people you need to contact and how you can contact them. A plan that can be drilled and modified to your individual need.

By now, you probably heard of at least one incident of a cyber attacks and its aftermath; ‘most articles you will find in the news are incidents about major companies; Molson Coors, Remax, Dairy Farm, CD Projekt, Hyundai, Discount Car Rental… the list goes on. But the truth is, cyber attacks are equal-opportunity crimes. In fact, small and medium sized companies are more likely to get targeted because of their lack in security and response plan. According to thestar.com, until 2019, almost all ransomware victims comprised of small to medium sized businesses, with healthcare, professional services and consumer services making up over 45% of the attacks.

Fortunately, cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing fields of expertise today.

Federal agencies such as the Canadian center of security, FBI and a growing network of cyber-detectives are developing increasingly effective means to prevent such attacks and resolving ransoms. Major hardware and software makers are spending billions of dollars each year on preventing attacks and developing technologies to protect and restore data systems

But those folks have their work cut out.

As of April 2021, there are already at least 100 variants of the basic software tools that cyber attackers use. With ransomware becoming increasingly sophisticated and ransom value on the rise; you need to be prepared for any situation.

Let’s pull the situation back a bit. Imagine you’re a team going into the playoffs of your favorite sport. You’re down a few points and you need the win. What do you do? You stay calm, you watch your opponents, and stick to the plan you developed. Having a plan is what's going to help you win the game.

So, let’s apply the same logic. You are attacked, you’re asked for ransom, where do you find your plan?

You can sift through your contracts, call your various tech support, IT teams, and spend the whole day trying to figures things out. Or, You can simply follow the Disaster Recovery plan from Storage Guardian.

Storage guardian has been in the data backup and security game for over 20 years. Our secure off-site data centers are state of the art using AES 256bit Encryption with FIPS 140-1 and 140-2 Certification — the very same protocol that the United States National Security Agency advises to deploy as the most secure method of transmitting sensitive data. Our Data Centres are fully scalable with the ability to add new capacity quickly with the Bandwidth to do it all. We are fully SOCS Audited and our Servers are secured and virtual with cutting edge physical features, including an around the clock, fully staffed facility with 24/7 video surveillance, security breach alarms and secure card access.

Over the last decade, we leveraged our expertise and developed our DR Playbook -

A concise document that identifies each step in the recovery process in case of an attack.

This includes contact information, remediation strategy and a restore sequence. Once notified, our global network of world-class forensics and incident response professional works to resolve and restore your network and issues in record time. Our playbook allows for drills to ensure system availability and to prepare you in case of an attack.

So don't panic because everything you need to do has been planned for.

The devil is in the details. We know that all too well. Our work starts with a full network wide assessment covering each of your machines, going over your requirements, and insurance policies. To give you a general idea, this is just some of what we assess and review: