It’s not breaking news to report that hackers rank among the poorest excuses for human beings on the planet. But it takes a disaster like a pandemic to reveal how awful they are.
While cities and states cope with the added stress of keeping government services accessible in these challenging times, hackers are taking advantage of their distraction by increasing ransomware attacks – locking out access to vital services until a ransom is paid for their restoration.
Yes, this is one more headache you don’t need. Yes, we can help.
Read our Whitepaper: Ransomware and Municipal Websites: A Prevention and Protection Strategy
But there are steps you can take right now as well.
Start with implementing complex passwords that automation would ≥struggle ÷to detect. It’s not as easy as using your dog’s name plus 123, but it’s a whole lot safer.
Next, employ two-factor authentication – it’s not foolproof but it will definitely keep the lazier hackers out, as it requires them to take extra steps to gain access to your system. And let’s face it – most of them are pretty lazy as they can’t bother to get real jobs.
Finally, review your remote desktop protocols, including ensuring that ports are closed after employees finish using them.
The overwhelming majority of attempted breaches are successfully thwarted. Billions of instances of malicious traffic are blocked every year by city and state IT agencies. The problem is they just keep coming.
Ransomware and Municipal Websites: A Prevention and Protection Strategy offers advice on how to protect municipal systems. However, we know that IT departments are sometimes over-extended already. That’s why many public sector entities are turning to outside security firms with the experience and resources to combat the ransomware threat.
360Civic offers a ransomware protection service for your systems and servers that utilize a number of effective, real world tested programs that fend off ransomware attacks. These best practices measures were developed in part by cybersecurity experts who have worked with the FBI’s Infrastructure Liaison Officer (ILO) program, which specializes in cyber counterintelligence operations.
