By Samuel Tolentino
August 17th, 2020.

Before we get to discuss the meaning of ransomware and who is more likely to become a victim of it, it is essential to understand why it is becoming more and more common. Cybersecurity first started as a luxury since not every company needed to have an online presence nor deal with web procedures to operate or be successful. But with the economy’s technological revolution, more and more businesses in different industries have been forced to involucrate themselves on the web to adapt, grow and survive in today’s markets. Nowadays, suppose your business is not present on the internet. In that case, it means it is non-existent to all the web users representing a large portion of today’s global population and market. 

As a result, numerous businesses are now part of a global network that goes from small-size start-ups to large significant corporations. All of these are taking a specific risk derived from those individuals or even corporations who want to benefit via cybercrime. The specific cybercrime activity that we will be discussing in this article is called Ransomware, which refers to the type of malware coming from crypto-virology (malicious software) that threatens to publish the victim’s sensible data or perpetually block access to it unless they pay a ransom.

One could think that ransomware cases only happen to small companies who do not have enough capital to invest in computer security. Sometimes, if not done through services like Safe-Tech’s, it can represent a significant investment. But this is false; recently, more and more companies like Canon, who are considered large global corporations, are being victims of ransomware attacks. Why? Because they want to save their capital instead of investing in protecting themselves and their confidential information from cybercrime, thus wholly ignoring a crucial aspect of being a business with an online presence.  

In Canon’s case, globally known for its printers and cameras, the company was attacked by the ransomware group identified as Maze. In the report written by Bleeping Computer (Abrams, 2020), Canon confirmed in an internal memo that ten terabytes of their information were copied. As a result, Maze threatened Canon to disclose these tons of copied information unless they paid their proposed ransom. An expert in Fortinet (one of Safe-Tech’s strategic alliances), commented on the topic and expressed that ransomware attacks are becoming more current as cybercriminals are profiting from these malicious activities. Finally, he revealed that proper security techniques like; secure data back-ups, important data segmentation, security updates installations, and an increase in staff knowledge about phishing emails and how to avoid them, can help reduce the likelihood of being attacked by ransomware.

At Safe-Tech, we include all of these techniques in our computer security services that will allow you to not worry about cyber attacks, but about the critical aspect of a business, which is reaching your maximum potential. Be protected, innovate and adapt with Safe-Tech.