Yesterday I spoke with an independent jewelry store that was targeted by cybercriminals. The criminals created a ransomware attack and held the store’s computer data hostage. The store had to scramble to find backup data and reopen. The store called the FBI and didn’t pay. The hackers then sent phishing emails to all the store’s customers—attacking the store’s customers and trying to infect them.
Today’s WSJ shares that retail and consumer businesses are the number one target of ransomware hackers. How do the attacks start? Most often via email. Do you use email? If so, you’re a candidate to be attacked. Staff at retail shops click on an email, and that email infects the computer and locks up all the shop’s computers. Any person or computer could be attacked; it’s not just digitally naive staff or ‘old’ computers at retail shops. We are ripe targets for sophisticated criminals hunting us from the globe.
What can one do to stop cyber criminals:
Be sure to install anti-virus software. Be sure it's updated daily.
Back up your data off-site to the cloud. Reason: hackers can access back-up hard drives that are connected to computers.
Call a computer security person to assess your business. This will save you many sleepless nights when the hackers attack.
I can attest firsthand to the stress, time, and cost of a cyber attack. Bridge was attacked by cyber thieves in 2019. The attack was enabled by a flaw in Adobe’s software, but I was still ultimately responsible to clean up the mess caused. The attack affected my clients and their customers. I had to pay for my staff to address the issue, as well as an outside tech expert and a lawyer. (We did bring the flaw in Adobe’s software to Adobe’s attention, and it did thank us on its website. That was not nearly enough to compensate us for our time and costs. Lol.)