Cyber Security FAQs with Drew Terrell, Runbiz President
Cyber-crime is on the rise and continually evolving. Runbiz President, Drew Terrell, recently had an opportunity to address FAQs regarding this growing epidemic.
What do business owners need to know about the current state of cyber-crime?
DT: It’s big business. The FBI says that it’s a $3 trillion industry this year and is estimated to rise to $6 trillion by 2021. Because of this, it has become very sophisticated. Attacks aren’t always easy to spot. People in our area are being targeted. Being in Amarillo, Tx doesn’t make you anonymous. People are using Facebook, Twitter, your website, and LinkedIn to socially engineer targets specific to a user inside of an organization.
How likely is it that my organization will be targeted?
DT: When we talk to people about this, it’s no longer an issue of if it’s going to happen, it’s an issue of when it’s going to happen. You have to be prepared and vigilant, doing the best you can. Then, unfortunately, deal with the fallout.
How do get rid of malware and prevent it in the future?
DT: It has to do with the type of infection or compromise you have. There are some good tools out there that will detect and help you remove malware, in some cases. In other cases, such as encryption, the only way to get rid of it is to restore from backup. When you think about how to best protect yourself, we deploy a three-pronged approach.
The first thing to consider is good user education. This stuff primarily comes from email and prays on people’s willingness to trust, so educating people on what they’re looking for is key. For example: Never put your password on the internet for any reason.
The second prong is adapting good tools. Most people are familiar with anti-virus, but now there are anti-phishing filters and other more sophisticated tools that will help you from making a mistake.
The final piece is business continuity. We used to think in terms of disaster recovery; fires, floods, tornados and things of that nature. These are no longer your biggest risk. Your biggest risk is cyber security. You need a plan in place that will help you recover from something like this in a matter of minutes or hours, not days.