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Source: TheDrum
On Friday afternoon (12 May) a global ransomware attack hit almost 100 countries, affecting systems in hospitals, schools, governments and busineses.
The issue has taken down systems in Russia, Germany, India and the US. Cyber-security firm Avast said it had seen 75,000 cases of the ransomware – known as WannaCry and variants of that name – infect computers internationally.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the worldwide attack, but NBC reports that experts believe the perpetrators used tools stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA).
As the fallout from the hack continues, UK magazine The Drum takes a look at how marketers can prevent and prepare for a cyber crisis.
Backup your files
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) from the UK advises that in order to protect themselves organisations should ensure that they have fully tested backup solutions in place – a measure that’s also likely to prevent a PR crisis for brands faced with questions from consumers if security is compromised.
“Backup files should not be accessible by machines which are at risk of ingesting ransomware,” the NCSC advises. However, it cautions that even if the victim has a recent backup of their system, it may still take considerable time to restore normal operations.
Make sure your systems are up to date
Some experts have implied that this weekend’s attack may have been built in response to a weakness in Microsoft systems identified by the NSA. Businesses would be well advised to make sure their systems are up to date so as to avoid hacks in the first place or criticism should they come under fire from hackers.
Microsoft released a statement on Friday saying it would roll out a fix for the vulnerability to users of older operating systems – like Windows XP – which wouldn’t have automatically updated to patch the problem.
Avast has penned a blog in which it states: “We strongly recommend all Windows users fully update their system with the latest available patches.”
Communicate with staff and customers
Speaking to ITV Ben Rapp, the chief executive of Managed Networks and an expert on cyber security, said the standard way for ransomware to be sent was in an email.
“Train your staff not to open emails that they’re not expecting. Not to click on links or download software they don’t know anything about,” he added. “The vast majority of this stuff requires you to act. There are exceptions to that, but usually the user has to do something.”
In the event of an attack, ensure staff are briefed quickly. Spanish telecommunications firm Telefónica reportedly told staff to turn off computers and disconnect from the company internal VPN as soon as it was made aware of the situation.
Both Renualt and FedEx have been affected but were quick to release statements to let customers know they were working on solutions. “We have been affected,” a spokeswoman for Renault told AFP, saying the brand was assessing the situation to try to find a solution. “Work is going on since last night. We are doing what is needed to counter this attack,” she added.
What’s next?
The fallout from the attack isn’t over, but an accidental fix has slowed down the spread of the infection.
“We are on a downward slope, the infections are extremely few, because the malware is not able to connect to the registered domain,” Vikram Thakur, principal research manager at Symantec, told the Guardian. “The numbers are extremely low and coming down fast.”
There are warnings, however, that the attackers could tweak the code behind the chaos and start the cycle again. The researcher who tweeted about slowing down the ransomware’s spread told Reuters he had not seen any such tweaks yet, “but they will”.