Our friends at Symantec released a solid report for 2015 that included data from their global intelligence network that is made up of 57.6 million attack sensors. That is a nerdtastic amount of places to record data – which benefits you. You can read the whole darn thing here if you want, but the most interesting bullets are:
- In 2014, there were 317 million malware variants released.
- Ransomware grew 113% with 8.8 million attacks last year. That’s over 24,000 per day.
- Crypto attacks grew 45 times in 2014.
- 1 in 244 emails contain malware
Yep, that is a tremendous amount of mumbo-jumbo trying to get on your network at all times of the day. Who has time to make all of this stuff? These days, hackers aren’t the inline skating, Ecto-cooler drinking, grunge rock fans that did all of this stuff in 90s movies. Today, your grandma could be the newest nefarious hacker. Really? Maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the increase in threats is thanks in part to facts like anyone can actually purchase their own ransomware kit on the dark web, customize it, and become the evil-doer they always dreamed of – without any real coding knowledge. If you have been hiding on a remote island for years, Ransomware is by far the most headline-ready and in-your-face threat that really any computer user level can grasp.
Ransomware = suddenly your files are encrypted + unaccessible + malware on your computer + says you have to pay someone $300-$30,000 to get them back = sad face. It still is the wild west out there folks.
Now that you have read this far, I’ll head into the shameless plug…We released our VitalCare Managed IT Solutions product in order to help us be more flexible when it comes to your network security. As things change we can easily add or change the layers of protection from antivirus to antimalware to backup to firewalls to content filtering – oh, don’t forget SPAM filtering, disaster recovery plans and the human element as well.
Analogy time: If your network is like a castle that has a moat but no door, we know somebody out there knows how to swim. When it your intellectual property, network or 20 years of project files at risk of going away in seconds, its important we help you implement the door locks and hot oil layers of protection in “your network castle” to safeguard what is vital to your organization.
Likely written poorly but to entertain you by:
Kevin Calgren, partner
Thanks to: Symantec
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