So, it appears that your team member Bob, the guy over there in accounting LOVES to click away all darn day. When Bob isn’t busy tallying up your expense reports or complaining about the shoebox of receipts that you just nonchalantly dropped on his desk, he is surfing. Not the wet and salty kind, the computer kind. He’s either catching up on his Survivor episodes, buying tickets for ComicCon: Revenge Of The Furries, or clicking clickbait that keeps pushing a new diet pill he’s dying to try.
And Then… All Hell Breaks Loose.
One early afternoon, right after that spicy Chili Dog got polished off at his desk, Bob clicks one too many Survivor Forums links and ends up with a new pop-up. A pop-up he hasn’t quite seen yet before. It lunges out of its Google Chrome container and alerts him to MALWARE. “Malware has been detected on this computer, click here to run a virus scan.” Terrified, and still wiping the chili off of his mustache, chin, other chin, and collar, Bob freaks the frick out. The last thing he needs now is some snoopy, mcsnoop pants overzealous IT person all up in his computer discovering his trail of link clickage. The smell of onions, mustard, chili, and Bob’s fear is palpable. Bob smashes that malware warning button and is swiftly directed to call a legit-looking 866-TRU-HACK malware support number for more support. “This is way more serious than I thought,” thought Bob. I better give them a call. Bob springs into action and gets connected with the help desk over in some far remote, nefarious region of the planet who promptly alerts him that he needs to gain access to his computer to HANDLE the malware situation. Bob gives in. Bob’s computer gets invaded. Bob’s company and all of its accounting data get locked down. Bob just screwed up, again, badly. The menacing hijacker now has complete control of Bob’s machine and is now drooling over the nice fat ransom that he’s going to receive to unlock the company’s data.
Guess Who Just Lost His Job?
If you guessed Bob, you’re right. Friends, this kind of stuff is so easily prevented and we see it every day at Advanced Systems Solutions. Malware is no joke, scareware is no joke, and ransomware is beginning to run rampant across the world. Here’s how this could have been prevented.
Weekly IT Safety Briefings
TALK to your team each week at a mandatory safety meeting. Let them know the threats that are looming, remind them of previous ones, and encourage them to stay in the know about security threats.
Proactive Plans
Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Create a proactive IT security plan and make certain that each team member is aware of the plan. Planning should start with backups, redundancies, and how the team is going to react to a breach or other IT security challenge. Have a plan in case your data does get locked down, have a plan in case your machines all get a dastardly virus, have a plan, and be two steps ahead of the hackers.
Stay Up To Date
If you don’t have an IT team consider partnering with a managed services provider (like us for example…). When you have the right IT partner you can sleep better at night knowing that your computers are updated, operating systems are up to date, firmware is up to date, and data is being backed up in multiple places. Choosing the right partner is critical, but can keep your small business up and running and as insulated as possible against attacks.
But, What About Bob?
Bob is a survivor, he’ll be ok, besides, he needed a few days off anyway to pick out that new Furry Costume. Thanks for reading everyone, and if we can ever be of assistance to help you plan, keep your network secure, train your employees or manage your IT services, you know where to find us. Relax. We’re On IT.
