How we protect our clients against ransomware

Most businesses are experiencing an increasing number of security threats which arrive via email.  Examples of these emails include fake invoices, Australia Post delivery information, requests from the AFP to pay fines, and employment applications.   The scammers are now targeting individual email addresses so traditional spam filters are not as effective as they once were.

It is easy to become tricked into clicking on a link or attachment in these emails. Unfortunately this action starts to download and run malicious files. The most serious of these threats is the Crypto Locker Ransomware which locks up all the files on your computer and shared drives. It does this using computer encryption, which is a very secure form of password protection. The problem is that the bad guys have the password key.  Once your files have been encrypted,  Ransomware posts a ransom note on your computer screen and amounts of between $700 and $2500 are being demanded. If your files cannot be retrieved from backups then the only way to restore your files is to pay the ransom. 

At Excelero IT Solutions we take these threats very seriously as any infection is very disrupting to any business. We have stepped up security threat defences for you as part of the Excelero Complete IT Support Service, using the following measures:

1.  All security software is kept updated to the latest version. This is done automatically in the background via our management systems.  We have tested the security software and found it to be effective at stopping infections even after clicking on the links. However we know that threats can change daily and we cannot rely on this measure alone to keep you protected.
2. Automatic File scanning for malicious files is  scheduled to run on a regular basis every week
3. Patch Management Systems are kept updated.  We have scheduled Microsoft Windows updates to also occur every week with automatic reboots if required. Malicious threats are known to target vulnerabilities in Windows, therefore systems must be kept up to date with the latest patches to minimise the chance of infection. In addition:
4. Latest Updates to Adobe reader, Java and Flash Player are included in each weekly patch update. 
5. Backup Security . We are changing the security on the backup locations so the backups are available for recovery even if Ransomware does take hold on the computer. If Ransomware does infect your computer then we can recover your files from the backup
   Backup Monitoring   We monitor the backups via our management system to provide improved reporting of backups so that we can quickly detect and fix any issues backups may have due to storage or other problems.

All of these measures are important to protect our clients from computer problems and are part of the value you receive with the Complete IT Support Service.

Call us on (03)  9555 4986  for further information or contact us via the contact form about our Complete IT service and how it can help you stay secure from Ransomware.