An increase in working from home, coupled with a more distributed workforce generally have had an impact on all types of organizations. There are two areas, specifically, that you need to be aware of and plan for.
Ransomware
Ransomware is on the increase as taking devices and data outside the traditional corporate LAN makes hacking easier.
Gangs of cybercriminals forced British businesses to pay more than £200 million in ransoms last year, and the global figure is estimated at £19 billion.
Attacks happen when hackers insert a malicious type of software which encrypts a user’s files. The only way the files can then be accessed is with a mathematical key known only by the attacker.
Recent victims include 33 British universities, the National Trust, Sue Ryder, Garmin and Travelex. The Times reports that Garmin and Travelex are thought to have paid ransoms.
It is legal to pay a ransom in the UK unless those paying know it’s for the purposes of terrorism. Some MPs are demanding a change to the law and the National Crime Agency encourages industry and the public not to pay. Easier said than done when a business loses access to critical data and is fearful of commercial and reputational damage.
Every business should have a robust cybersecurity strategy implemented to include hardware, software, policies, systems and processes, regular testing and optimisation. MPS offers a comprehensive framework of cybersecurity solutions to suit any and every business.
Should you have any concerns contact us now to arrange your free MPS Cyber Risk Assessment which includes vulnerability scans, breach reports and a bespoke review with a cybersecurity specialist.
SD-WAN
Cloud strategies, smarter apps and a more distributed workforce result in a demand for more and more network capacity but simply continually increasing bandwidth isn’t the answer; an expensive journey with no end in sight. Managing bandwidth is the solution, with SD-WAN.
SD-WAN delivers optimal application performance over any network environment and optimizes your WAN for hybrid and multi-cloud network environments. Equally critical for expensive, dedicated corporate connectivity and the limited capacity of homeworkers’ shared circuits.
SD-WAN allows for reliability and business continuity during challenging and unpredictable times by managing traffic over multiple mediums BAU and failover.
SD-WAN transforms your networks to ensure anytime, anywhere access from all your business locations to applications in the cloud.